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The Start of Social Media
Six Degrees, the first recognizable social media site, is launched by Andrew Weinreich. Weinreich created the site based on the concept of the Six Degrees of Separation. Much like modern social networking sites, Six Degrees allowed users to add friends and make posts for their followers to see. Source -
Dawn of Instant Messaging
The first instant messaging applications start to launch. AOL is the first to launch such a service, with AIM debuting in May of 1997. Following close behind were Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger (later known as Windows Live Messenger) in 1998 and 1999. Source -
The Launch of Friendster
One of the first social media sites, "Friendster" launches. Friendster was used for everything from talking with friends and family, to sharing photos and videos, and even contained a dating portion. Friendster was extremely popular until technical issues and glitchy redesigns caused its user base to fade. It was relaunched in 2011 as a gaming platform, but ultimately closed its doors in 2015 after failing to compete with other sites.
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Business Meets Social Media
LinkedIn launches as a professional networking site. It was meant to connect employers with employees and to allow professionals to build a network of contacts. Source -
Myspace
August of 2003 saw the launch of one of the most popular social media sites in history. The site was created by a group of employees from the company eUniverse who aimed to make a rival for Friendster. The site was ready for launch only 10 days after the idea was first hatched. The original user base consisted of only eUniverse employees, but by 2008 the site had 75.9 unique monthly visitors. Source -
Skype
The 29th of August, 2003 was the launch date of the first public beta for the Skype platform. The founders of Skype sought to provide users with a way to make voice and video calls to one another over the internet. Originally called "Skyper," a shortened version of "Sky peer-to-peer," the founders were forced to change the name to "Skype" after finding that the "Skyper" domain was already taken. Source -
The Birth of a Giant
One of the largest social media sites is officially launched, but with the name "TheFacebook." TheFacebook was only available to Harvard students, with more than half of the undergraduates joining within the first month. It was not until September of 2006 that the Facebook that we all know was opened to the public, so long as you were at least 13 and had a valid email address. Source -
Legal Troubles for Facebook
Cameron Wnklevoss, Tyler Winlevoss, and Divya Narendra launch a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg, accusing of stealing their idea for the site "Facebook". They claimed that Zuckerberg was originally helping them develop "HarvardConnection," a social media site for Harvard students, but he instead took the ideas and source code and launched his own site as a competitor. Source -
Broadcast Yourself - The Start of YouTube
Three former PayPal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim launch YouTube with the slogan "Broadcast Yourself." The site rose quickly, with more than 1.5 billion monthly users as of 2017. The site allows content creators of all types to upload their videos. YouTube is currently owned by Google, who purchased it less than 2 years after it's initial launch for $1.65 billion. Source -
An Alien Named "Snoo" - The Launch of Reddit
The social news aggragation, web content rating, and discussion website Reddit is launced. Reddit was originally founded by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian at the University of Virginia. The site grew quickly, attracting millions of subscribers and billions of pageviews. The site's mascot is an alien named "Snoo." Source -
The First Acquisition of Myspace
News Corporation announces a deal that would allow it to acquire for $580 million. News Corporation would go on to sell the site to Specific Media in 2011 for only $35 million. The purchase of the site was originally seen as a smart move, as the site's value tripled within a year of the purchase date. However, the site's value quickly deteriorated as giants like Facebook began to rise. Source -
Can You Say It In 140 Character? - The Launch of Twitter
Twitter is opened to the public. Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams created Twitter, using the prototype as an internal messaging service for the company Odeo. The site allows users to post short messages, originally limited to 140 characters, for other users to see. The site grew quickly, reaching 328 million users in 2017. Source -
Settlement for Facebook
The infamous case, started in 2004, between Facebook and ConnectU (founded by the Winklevoss twins) finally comes to an end. The settlement reached gave the accusers 1.2 million shares in Facebook, which was valued at $300 million at the time of the site's IPO. Source -
LinkedIn's IPO
LinkedIn holds it's initial public offering, opening the market at $45 per share. The stock hit a high of $122.70, and closed at $94.25 per share, more than doubling in value. Source -
Facebook's IPO
Facebook's initial public offering is held. The company closed the day at $38 per share, and is currently at roughly $190 per share. Source -
