After Selling Myspace for $580 Million, Tom Now Travels the World Taking Epic Photos
By Laura Dang
Ever curious what everyone’s first friend on MySpace is doing these days?
Tom Anderson, recognizable by his famous whiteboard picture as the default friend on MySpace, sold his social networking site to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation for $580 million back in 2005. Anderson, now 44, spends his time globetrotting and pursuing his interest in photography, which he posts on his Instagram.
Anderson co-founded MySpace in 2003 when Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was still only a 19-year-old at Harvard. He finally left MySpace behind in 2009 to enjoy his retirement as a multi-millionaire. Anderson can be found on social media sites such as Twitter and Instagram with his username “myspacetom” and his default MySpace picture.
His Instagram account is mostly filled with beautiful landscape photographs of exotic places he has visited around the world including Bali, Malaysia and Singapore. Selfies are rare for the camera-shy Anderson — the last one posted on his Instagram page is from two years ago and includes the caption: “I am behind on processing photos! In other news, I think Japanese sushi is good for my skin :-)”
During an interview with ABC News, Anderson revealed that his professional photography interest began at Burning Man festival in 2011. He admits to photography blog PetaPixel that he was “blown away” by his own knack for photography.
He credits his photographer friend, Trey Ratcliff, for developing his photography skills. He said:
“The less the camera is able to capture what you’re seeing in a scene, the more editing it needs. I’m not necessarily trying to represent nature exactly. I’m trying to make something beautiful like a painter would.”
Anderson said he will often travel to countries if there is an event or festival or if there is a special weather forecast in order to capture photos.
The social network founder has also admitted to being people-shy when it comes to his photography:
“On the rare occasion I get people in my landscapes and scenes, it’s mostly never planned. I’m a little shy about it.”
“On the rare occasion I get people in my landscapes and scenes, it’s mostly never planned. I’m a little shy about it.”
As to whether he will ever return to the corporate tech world, he told ABC News:
“Many people really seem to want that from me. On the one hand it’s flattering. I’ll never say never, because more than anything I like the idea that anything can happen. I don’t know exactly where my life will lead. Adventure and the unknown has always been appealing to me.”
“Many people really seem to want that from me. On the one hand it’s flattering. I’ll never say never, because more than anything I like the idea that anything can happen. I don’t know exactly where my life will lead. Adventure and the unknown has always been appealing to me.”
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