~ / Internet history / The Million Dollar Homepage

The Million Dollar Homepage

The Million Dollar Homepage is a website launched on 26 August 2005 by Alex Tew, a student from Wiltshire, England.

The homepage consists of a grid of one million pixels, which were sold for $1 each to advertisers.

The idea was to create a viral marketing campaign to fund Alex's university education. The website quickly gained popularity, and all the pixels were sold within a few months, generating a total of $1 million in revenue (exactly $1,037,100).

Anecdotes

Nowadays, Alex Tew is the co-founder and CEO of Calm, a well-known meditation app with "over 180 million downloads and 3M 5-star reviews" according to their website.
I sent a message to Alex Tew on LinkedIn on August 12, 2025, about whether he would commemorate the 20th anniversary of the MDH with a special "Billion Dollar" edition. He replied that he had no plans for such an edition this time, but "Maybe one day!".