In 2005, a 21-year-old student named Alex Tew needed a way to pay for university. His answer was disarmingly simple: build a webpage with one million pixels and sell the space to advertisers. What looked like a grid of tiny pictures became one of the early web’s most memorable experiments.
A million pixels, one dollar each
Tew launched The Million Dollar Homepage in August 2005. The page was a 1,000 × 1,000-pixel grid. Each pixel cost $1, but buyers had to purchase at least a 10 × 10 block — $100 — so their image could actually be seen. They supplied a small graphic and a link to their website. The BBC’s profile of Tew traces the idea back to his plans to fund a business management course.
That fixed inventory was part of the appeal. The image changed as new buyers arrived, and visitors could explore a growing patchwork of websites. Every new purchase also gave its owner a reason to share the page, bringing more people to the whole wall.
How the last space sold
Coverage turned the experiment into a story far beyond its first advertisers. Rather than selling the final 1,000 pixels at the original rate, Tew put them up for auction in January 2006. The Web Design Museum documents the 2005 launch and the final auction. The last block reportedly fetched $38,100, lifting the gross total above a million dollars — a result reported in the BBC’s retrospective.
The lesson is not that buying a square guarantees attention. Tew’s original page arrived at a particular moment in internet history and became a news story in its own right. No later wall can promise the same result.
What happened to the links?
The original site remains a remarkable visual snapshot, but not every destination has survived. A 2014 Guardian report found that 22% of the links then led to dead pages. If you are placing a link on a long-lived wall today, choose a destination you control and intend to maintain.
What SquareMillion does differently
SquareMillion takes inspiration from the grid, not from a promise to repeat its viral success. Here, you can choose an available area in any rectangular size at €1 per square — including a single square — add a square image and a link, and make one payment. The wall also shows public view and click counts rather than projecting future traffic. Your image and link cannot be changed after purchase, so preview both carefully before paying.
Curious what the modern wall looks like? Explore the available squares and decide whether a place there makes sense for your project.
