A juggernaut called MySpace.com

When 28-year-old Tom Anderson of Santa Monica launched his Web site in late 2003, he had in mind a network for fellow indie rockers to take their alternative music straight to fans.

Last July, he sold it - for $580 million - to media titan Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

What happened in between is Internet history. And it is still in the making.

From a small base of musicians creating pages to showcase their bands, MySpace.com rapidly morphed into the dominant force in online social networking. By offering users the capability to build highly personalized, techno-charged pages, it overtook its competitors - reportedly without a penny spent on promotion.

MySpace has 41 million registered users and ranks 19th on the list of most-visited Internet sites, according to MediaMetrix, a Chicago research firm. Its 24 million unique visitors in October exceeded the combined traffic on Facebook (9 million), Xanga (8 million) and Friendster (1.4 million).

That makes MySpace the prime gateway to marketing's dream demographic: 14- to 30-year-olds.

After News Corp. acquired MySpace's parent company, Intermix Media, Murdoch described his new treasure to Wall Street analysts: "It's sticky, it's fun, it's informative." And, he added, it is "poised to be very profitable."

MySpace says it already carries more than 10 percent of all advertising viewed online. The ads range from cola and cell phones to dating services ("eSpin-the-Bottle: Search for Hotties near you").

But News Corp. plans to place an even bigger bet on MySpace mania by using the site as a platform from which to promote and release offerings from its subsidiaries, including 20th Century Fox and Fox Broadcasting Co.

It already is a player in the music industry: In the last year, Nine Inch Nails, Beck and Queens of the Stone Age all had their most successful album releases ever on MySpace. And in October, the site partnered with Interscope Records to sign breakthrough bands that show grassroots appeal with users.

That might be just the start.

News Corp. reportedly plans to mine MySpace's vast repository of personal information on young people (demographic profiles, personal interests, spending habits) in an effort to become the dominant seller of Internet display advertising.

Whether MySpace will stay atop the heap is the big question. Leading Web portals Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL all say they are planning their own networking sites.

Via Philly in philly via philly

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