Between December 2013 and December 2014, the one-time Facebook competitor MySpace grew 469%. Yes, yes, the pioneering social network, started in 2003, grew only from a ludicrously low base in 2013. But even in absolute numbers, MySpace is now bigger, in the US, than the fast-growing upstart Snapchat, media darling Vice, content farm elitedaily.com, viral factory imgur.com, as well as Vine, SoundCloud, and the NYPost network of sites.
The numbers come from a comparison of selected sites by comScore, which counts visitors for websites as a neutral third party. (Publishers often say that comScore undercounts, but if it does so it does it uniformly, and its numbers can therefore be compared across media properties)
What accounts for Myspace’s newfound success? According to comScore, the “surprising renaissance” comes from Myspace’s pivot to video and music content. “As it reignited audience interest, the site boasted one of the fastest growth rates in 2014 in surging 469% to nearly 40 million visitors.”