By a show of hands, how many people know who Tom is on MySpace?  Now from those same show of hands, who knows who Trent Lapinski is?  Very few I’m guessing, however Trent is causing waves in the MySpace community with his accusations against MySpace, Tom and so many more.  Why the accusations?  Trent Lapinski has a theory that MySpace is not truly what people think, instead of being only a social networking site, he claims that it was designed for the purpose of mass advertising and profits. 

Let us take a moment and start with Tom Anderson, Trent claims that Tom is not quite who he is portrayed to be.  This is the guy that almost everybody knows, you see him from the moment you create your very first MySpace account, up until the moment, you close your account.  He is always going to be your very first friend, and you cannot delete him. 

"Tom is the most popular guy on MySpace and the apparent creator of the website.  But is that really true? "

According to Trent’s theory many people do not realize that Tom Anderson is really a PR concept that was hashed up behind locked doors of an internet company that did not want to appear as a marketing giant getting larger.  The whole goal of putting Tom into the public eye was to create the impression that MySpace was an underdog making it big.  Tom has struck gold when he created MySpace, and that is still to this day the concept that most people think of when they hear MySpace. 

Trent goes on to say that people have also been under the impression that MySpace was simply a viral success that seemed to pop up suddenly overnight and sweep across the country.  Cleverly disguised, the company behind MySpace, News Corp has worked very hard to make sure the site has the appearance and function of a viral site.  However, the companies behind the success of MySpace have pushed the site very hard, very quickly.  When the site was initially created MySpace pushed members of CupidJunction.com a dating website to sign up.  This was almost 3 million instant members!  How many viral websites come out with that to start with?

Trent claims that MySpace was actually created by eUniverse not Tom Anderson.  The company later changed their name to Intermix Media and has since pushed MySpace to make it as large as possible.  With over 50 million e-mail addresses, plus 18 million web users the company had a very large stock for initial advertising purposes.  This really helped MySpace get started, and allowed a huge kick off.

Mr. Lapinski also alleges that spam is the primary name of the of the game for MySpace.  No matter what you are doing, you are bombarded by spam from all around.  There is spam on each and every page, several banners, and ads per page.  Moreover, add to that the fact that bands, and artists and almost every business is trying to pursue the business options they are finding online.  This includes MySpace where there are millions of users, and tons of advertising is available. 

Trent has even stated that simply by tapping into the MySpace market, these advertisers are able to focus on brand new perspective buyers they would not have otherwise had.  Simply by adding friends to your MySpace account you are able to send messages to anyone on your friend list.  This is a great way to increase your advertising abilities.  How much better could it be for those looking to expand advertising possibilities?

According to "Trent’s theory" MySpace was simply created as a form of competition against the website Friendster?  Most do not realize this, nor do they realize that the major players in the MySpace process all have, or had Friendster accounts!  This includes the CEO of MySpace Chris DeWolfe, who has had a Friendster account since June of 2003.  Remember, MySpace was not launched until August of 2003. 

Trent has dug very deeply into the company, but it still remains to be known whether his claims are completely accurate or not (it sounds most like a load of shit to me).  But you never know, MySpace might have a few dirty little secrets that they would rather sweep under the carpet.

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