The Friend

Tom Anderson
myspace.com/tom

Join MySpace.com and you'll automatically be befriended by Anderson, who in 2003 founded the site with Chris DeWolfe to help connect musicians with fans. MySpace's popularity surged as hordes of young people used the site to connect with one another and to personalize pages with photos, blogs, and music. By mid-2005, MySpace boasted 22 million members and was bought by News Corp. for $580 million. Anderson, who holds a master's degree in film from the University of California at Los Angeles, continues to call the shots from within the House of Murdoch, adding features in a bid to keep MySpace cool. The world's most popular online social network now has more than 115 million unique users a month. Anderson's challenge: navigating expansion in China while fending off a growing threat from Facebook and an array of edgy upstarts.