MySpace Didn't Die, It Sold Its Soul (And ChatGPT Might Be Next) The War on Mediocre Business Ep. 1

MySpace had 100 million users and more web traffic than Google. Then they made one decision that started a five-year collapse — and a decade later, ChatGPT might be making the same mistake.In this episode of Whatever Happened To, I break down how MySpace went from the most visited site on the internet to a $35 million fire sale — in five years. The short answer: they stopped doing what made them great and started chasing ad revenue instead.I'm Scott Monday. I run two businesses in California's Central Valley and I'm morbidly curious about what makes businesses succeed and fail — especially the ones we all grew up with.0:00 — MySpace had more traffic than Google0:23 — What this series is about0:39 — My personal connection to MySpace1:19 — How MySpace was built (2003 to 2004)2:17 — 25 million users and Rupert Murdoch's $580M buyout3:02 — News Corp sees "eyeball inventory"3:26 — The $900M Google ad deal3:46 — Why it was a trap4:25 — Facebook rises while MySpace falls5:52 — The core lesson: optimized for the contract, not the customer6:11 — Is ChatGPT making the same mistake?7:50 — What this means for your business9:25 — The question every business owner needs to ask10:05 — Subscribe and final thoughtThe lesson isn't just about MySpace. It's about the small decisions you and I make every day that slowly erode the thing our customers love. MySpace wasn't run by idiots. They were run by smart people who made a series of bad decisions — each one looking reasonable in isolation.Don't make the same trade.Subscribe for a new episode every two weeks. No fluff, no motivation talk — just real lessons from real businesses you actually remember.I write about this stuff every week in The Scott Monday Newsletter: https://scottmonday.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit scottmonday.substack.com