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History of Social Media Timeline

  • Emails

    Emails
    Ray Tomlinson sent the first email in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Tomlinson was testing the message by simply sending it to himself on two computers sitting right beside each other.
  • Listserv

    Listserv
    Listserv is an automated mailing list manager developed by Eric Thomas in Paris in 1986. A Listserv is a way of communicating with a group of people via email. You send one email message to the list owner email address, and the software sends the email to all of the group's subscribers. The owner can add and remove subscribers as well.
  • Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

    Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
    In 1988, Jarkko Oikarinen, created an open protocol that allowed other users with IRC to chat in real time over the internet. IRC was one of the first systems to allow more than two people to join in on a discussion.
  • Sixdegrees.com

    Sixdegrees.com
    In May 1996, Six Degrees became the first social networking site developed by Andrew Weinreich. This site combined popular features such as profiles, friends list, and schools in one service.
  • Friendster

    Friendster
    Jonathan Abrams created this social networking platform in 2002. Friendster became so popular that even google wanted to buy it for $30 million in 2003. In 2015, the company was sold to a social gaming site based in Malaysia.
  • LinkedIn

    LinkedIn
    In 2003, the social media for business was developed. LinkedIn was created by Reid Hoffman and founding team members. LinkedIn grew more and more popular with now having 575+ users.
  • Facebook

    Facebook
    Facebook, known as nothing less than the king of social media. In 2004, Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Harvard college students and now has 2.4 billion users.
  • YouTube

    YouTube
    Three former PayPal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, created the service in February 2005. The online video streaming platform allows users to share, upload, and watch content online.
  • Twitter

    Twitter
    In 2006, a quite different social media platform was created by Jack Dorsey. What separates Twitter from the rest of social media platforms is that is was a unique way to interact with celebrities.
  • WhatsApp

    WhatsApp
    in 2009, a free messaging platform was created and founded by John Koum and Brian Acton and launched 1.5 billion users by 2019. What people like about WhatsApp is that it's use friendly and that its free for everyone.
  • Instagram

    Instagram
    Instagram is a social media app that allows users to share photos and videos from their lives, add captions, edit filters, tweak settings, engage with others, explore and so, so much more. Instagram was founded by Kevin Systrom in 2010 holding 1 billion users today.