In July 2005, in one of the company's first major Internet purchases, News Corporation purchased Myspace for US$580 million.[1][28] At the time of the acquisition, the company was seeing 16 million monthly users and growing exponentially.[29] News Corporation had beat out Viacom by offering a higher price for the website,[30] and the purchase was seen as a good investment at the time.[30] Within a year, Myspace had tripled in value from its purchase price.[30] News Corporation saw the purchase as a way to capitalize on Internet advertising and drive traffic to other News Corporation properties.[28]