-
The PLATO system was invented in 1960 by the University of Illinois, pioneering what would eventually would become instant messaging. -
-
The Talkomatic was created by Dave Woolley and Douglas Brown at the University of Illinois within the PLATO system. It was the first multi-user chat room app of its kind. -
TERM-talk is created as an instant messaging app that would let two people partake in an early version of screen sharing. -
ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) is one of the first networks to have the TCP/IP protocol suite, which is the foundation for what we know as the internet. -
-
BBS becomes one of the first forms of social media, allowing those logged in to upload/download data, read news, and message other users through public boards and direct messages. -
FidoNet is created as a network for BBS systems to communicate. This allows emails and forum messages to be exchanged between different BBS systems on the network. -
Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989 to automate information sharing between scientists around the world. -
SixDegrees.com, one of the first social media sites, is created. On this site you could set up a profile, create a list of friends, and send others messages. -
AOL Instant Messenger was created in 1997, becoming one of the biggest early "modern" message boards, remaining popular until the rise of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. -
-
Yahoo! and MSN Messenger launch in 1999, showing the meteoric rise in online communication. -
AmIHotorNot.com was launched in 2000 by James Hong and Jim Young, allowing people to upload images of themselves to be rated. This website is said to have influenced sites like Facebook and Youtube. -
LinkedIn, a social networking site made for those in business to connect, was launched in 2003. It is still vastly popular today with over 700 million users. -
MySpace launches, which will eventually become the most popular social media network in the world. -
Facebook launches in 2004, initially starting as a social media app for college students, eventually becoming the biggest social media app in the world. -
Flickr, an image hosting service, is launched in 2004. It is used by many sites and blogs to host and embed videos and images into their site, which was a massive step in the accessibility of site creation. -
MySpace is acquired by News corporation for $580 million, before becoming the most visited site in the US in 2006. -
Reddit is founded in 2005 as a news aggregation and discussion site. -
Yahoo acquires Flickr in 2006, in a deal for around $25 million dollars -
Facebook opens up to everyone with a valid emal over the age of 13, becoming a social media site for all. -
Twitter, a social media app with an emphasis on short posts known as "tweets", launches in 2006. -
Instagram is launched in 2010, primarily focusing on the posting and sharing of images. It was acquired by Facebook in 2012. -
-
Snapchat, an instant messaging app with an emphasis on disappearing messages, launches in 2011. Originally focused on 1 on 1 interactions, it innovated the "story", a temporary public post of a video/image that disappears after a certain time. -
Microsoft acquires Skype for $8.5 billion dollars, which is their second biggest acquisition to date. -
Facebook acquires Instagram for $1 billion. -
Facebook goes public on the NYSE for $38 a share, which put their total company evaluation at $104 billion, which was the largest valuation for a newly listed public company. -
Microsoft acquires LinkedIn for $26.2 , the largest acquisition for Microsoft at the time. -
TikTok, a short form video-based social media platform, launches in 2017 from ByteDance Ltd. This service was heavily influenced by Vine, which was shut down by Twitter in 2016.