MySpace, once the biggest social network on Earth, faded into obscurity after Facebook took the world by storm. That’s the widely held belief, anyway. But according to CEO Tim Vanderhook of Viant, the company that bought MySpace in 2011, that’s not what happened at all.
Vanderhook took to LinkedIn to share that the belief that MySpace was done-in by Facebook isn’t true. Facebook’s growth and popularity certainly didn’t help, but MySpace was more hurt by Google, he alleges. The decline of MySpace wasn’t primarily due to Facebook but was a “calculated takedown by Google” over a fight for music.
“Everyone thinks Facebook killed MySpace, but the real assassin was Google — using its monopoly to dismantle us piece by piece. If it could happen to the world’s largest website, it could happen to anyone,” Vanderhook says.
Back in 2006, MySpace was the largest website on the planet due not just to its social networking aspect, but to its “dominance” in music, Vanderhook explains. It was the only platform that was licensed by all four major record labels to provide music videos and allow for streaming audio. Anyone who used MySpace will remember that music was a big part of what the platform offered. Every profile could stream music and being at the top of the MySpace music charts was a major factor in getting discovered and landing a record deal.
“Late in 2006, Google acquired YouTube and quickly integrated it into their ecosystem. By licensing music videos, which now account for ~30% of all YouTube plays, Google positioned YouTube as the dominant force it is today, directly competing with MySpace’s music stronghold,” Vanderhook says.
“But Google didn’t stop there. They knew that controlling search traffic was key to dominating the internet. Google manipulated search results, prioritizing their properties, like YouTube, over competitors. Their acquisition of DoubleClick allowed them to redirect ad dollars and traffic away from MySpace, starving us of visibility and engagement.”
Vanderhook points to Google’s launch of Google Plus in 2011, which was a social network designed to compete with Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.
‘Everyone thinks Facebook killed MySpace, but the real assassin was Google — using its monopoly to dismantle us piece by piece.’
“Google integrated it with YouTube, Gmail, and search, artificially boosting its visibility. Within weeks, Google Plus had 10 million users; by the end of 2011, it had 90 million. Google also introduced the ‘social’ inbox in Gmail, filtering notifications from competing networks into a separate tab, making users feel like there was less activity on those platforms, accelerating their decline,” he continues.
Vanderhook says that as Google’s control of search and online traffic expanded, its ability to “shape the narrative” did too, allowing it to game Comscore numbers and push the narrative that it was Facebook that was killing Myspace.
“In reality, Google was the silent executioner. By the time YouTube fully integrated with Google’s ecosystem, MySpace was no longer the dominant platform it once was, and the narrative had been rewritten,” Vanderhook claims.
“Google didn’t just outcompete MySpace — they dismantled us using their monopolistic power. If they could do it to the world’s largest website, they could do it to anyone. This isn’t just a story about the past; it’s a warning for the future. When one company controls search, content, advertising, email, and even user identity, they control the entire internet. It’s time to break up Google before they bury more competition in the shadows. If it happened to MySpace, it can happen to you. This is the power of Google and it is unmatched.”
From this perspective, Vanderhook is alleging that Google used its vast power to create a social network overnight and combine it with its ambitions for YouTube to knock MySpace off the podium. Once MySpace was effectively dead, Google Plus was no longer needed and the Silicon Valley giant set it out to pasture to join the many other projects killed by Google over the years.
“Google Search (Google.com)—> Owned & Operated property (YouTube)—> O&O Property monetizes via Ads—>mandatory use O&O Ad platform to buy Ads (Doubleclick assets)—> Maximize advertiser share of wallet. That’s called end-to-end lock-in from users to advertisers and ensures market share for all Google O&O at each step. It’s how it works,” Vanderhook concludes.
A few months ago, comedian Adam Conover published a video detailing how Google’s dominance over search made it incredibly powerful and wealthy while simultaneously making the entire internet worse.
The United States Department of Justice’s trial against Google for antitrust violations related to internet publishing, broadcasting, and web search is scheduled for September 9, 2024.
Image credits: Elements of header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
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