Scribd
Upload
85 views5 pages

Social Media Brief History

Six Degrees, launched in 1997, is considered the first social media platform as it allowed users to create profiles, send messages, and post items. While revolutionary, it was sold in 2000 due to lack of internet access. MySpace, Friendster, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn emerged in the early 2000s, with some originally intended as dating sites. Facebook and Twitter launched in 2006 and quickly grew popular for sharing information and visual content. Instagram and Pinterest launched in 2010 and 2011 respectively, innovating on photo and image sharing. The history of social media continues to evolve with new features, though community and user-generated content remain foundations of successful platforms.

Uploaded by

PaulIsaac 0518
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
85 views5 pages

Social Media Brief History

Six Degrees, launched in 1997, is considered the first social media platform as it allowed users to create profiles, send messages, and post items. While revolutionary, it was sold in 2000 due to lack of internet access. MySpace, Friendster, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn emerged in the early 2000s, with some originally intended as dating sites. Facebook and Twitter launched in 2006 and quickly grew popular for sharing information and visual content. Instagram and Pinterest launched in 2010 and 2011 respectively, innovating on photo and image sharing. The history of social media continues to evolve with new features, though community and user-generated content remain foundations of successful platforms.

Uploaded by

PaulIsaac 0518
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

The Beginning of Social Media Platforms

First things first - wait, what was the first social media website?

Long before global networks were created, there was Six Degrees, a
platform that is widely considered to be the very first social
networking site.

Created in 1996 and launched in 1997, this platform allowed users to


create a profile, send messages, and post bulletin board items.

The name of the website was inspired by the “six degrees of


separation” theory which supports the idea that all living things and
everything else in the world are six or fewer steps away from each
other so that a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements can be made
to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.
Although the idea was revolutionary for its time, in December 2000
the platform was sold because it was considered non-sustainable
since not enough people had access to the internet. Today, the website
is still active, being an exclusive invite-only social network.

Now let’s take it back to the early 2000s when MySpace, Friendster,
Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn were in their infant
stages.

Surprisingly, many social media websites were

created as dating sites. Platforms like Hot or Not,

Friendster, Facemash, and even YouTube tried to

attract young people in the digital courtship game.


Some of them made it, while some of them found another purpose in
the virtual world.

Besides the huge success that Myspace and Flickr had, there were two
other websites that caught the eye of youngsters - Facebook and
Twitter. Both launched in 2006, they quickly became a media trend
with their original, different approach to information sharing and
visual content.

2006 was also the year LinkedIn started to turn a profit, 3 years after
its launch. Its business-oriented approach, alongside its job-oriented
user profiles, innovated the media marketing and social strategies of
any social media marketer who wanted to be in the know.

The terms “social media manager”, “social media

trends”, “social media presence”, “digital insights”

or “social media influencers” had their birth right

then and there.

2007 is the start of the age of micro-blogging. Tumblr takes the world
by storm with its “Twitter meets YouTube and WordPress” approach.

That same year was the year that the mighty hashtag makes its first
appearance on the already popular social media website- Twitter.

Jumping to 2010, the world witnessed the birth of a new universal


digital language - the Emoji. We could not stop using the “Face with
Tears” (a.k.a. the laugh-cry emoji) and some of us continue to
over-use it to this day.

But wait! It turns out that 2010 had another bomb up its sleeve.
Introducing Instagram - the photo-sharing app that won the game
with its vintage, polaroid feel and its cool vibes; and in comes
Pinterest - the reason so many of us are able to hoard our future plans
and house designs in one common virtual place.

One year later, Snapchat arises and pulls a disappearing act by


introducing a new way of sharing content- the vanishing stories.
From stories to filters, Snapchat continues to be a source of
inspiration for big tech social media companies.

The history of social media platforms does not end

here but continues to evolve as the years pass by.

Innovative features like reels, live streams,

augmented reality, or even mixed reality social

media channels.

On the other hand, some aspects of the social media strategy as we


know it, may as well never change. The community-based features,
the value of user-generated content, or the captivating aspects of
video content of any social platform represent the foundation of every
successful social app.
Additionally, social media platforms can hold almost as much
information as search engines do. Especially about their users.

This is why it is very important to acknowledge the massive impact


that these social

media sites have on our lives.

https://brandmentions.com/blog/future-of-social-media/#2

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy