The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines social media as:
“Forms of electronic communication (such as social networking websites and microblogs) in which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).”
While services like YouTube and Facebook automatically come to mind, you can trace the origins of social media back to the late 1970s.
In this article, you will find a brief overview of the history of social media, from the early pioneers of electronic communication to the social media platforms that dominate the internet today.
bulletin board systems
Randy Suess and Ward Christensen introduced the computerized amateur bulletin board system at 1978.
While it was initially designed to help inventors connect with fellow members of the Computer Club of Chicago and create content for the club’s newsletters, it eventually I slept To support 300-600 users.
CBBS It still exists today as a forum with posts dating back to 2000.
like modems With increasing speed, bulletin board systems are becoming more and more popular with computer users. using telnet BBS directoryyou can travel through time and see more than 1000 bulletin board systems.
For those looking for recent versions of bulletin board systems, try wikipedia existing from Internet forums.
Online chat service, instant messaging and chat rooms
As an extension of BBS systems, Jarkko Oikarinen Set up the first Internet Chat (IRC) client and server in 1988. It will allow users to chat with each other in real time.
This would lay the foundation for instant messaging services such as merck And ICQwhich still exists today.
While ICQ has continued to update its interface to suit current times, mIRC has had the same website since 2008.
in 1992America Online (AOL) is now available to the public. by 1995America Online’s 3 million users can interact via email, forums, and chat rooms.
Celebrities like Michael Jackson have used America Online chat rooms to host One of the first Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions with over 25,000 participants.
AOL has released a free, standalone version of its instant messaging service 1997which hooked its users until it logged out for the last time in 2017.
In 1999, Tencent launched qqan instant messaging service.
This service still exists today, along with the social network Qzone (Launched in 2015), brags 574 million users.
The first social networks
In 1997 the first social networking sites were launched: Bolt And Six degrees.
Dan Belson designed Bolt as a platform 15-20 years old For use in email, voicemail, voice chat, message boards, and instant messaging. After 11 years, Bolt announced on its forums that it was shutting down.
Six Degrees founder Andrew Weinreich, sometimes referred to as The father of social networkingcreated his platform to help people connect with people they don’t (yet) know.
He also introduced the first social network patent to:
“A networked database containing a large number of records of different individuals where the individuals are related to each other in the database through specific relationships.”
The platform is still there Todayalthough it doesn’t appear to have changed since 2017.
The birth of social blogging
in 1998, Open a diary It became the first online diary platform to bring together diary writers, allowing them to share their thoughts and comment on others’ musings. Writers still use the site today to share their personal stories.
A year later, in 1999, Live Journal You will enter the social blogging arena.
In addition to sharing ideas and creating a community through commenting, LiveJournal offered the ability to make friends with like-minded people, which enhances the social appeal of blogging.
From social dating to social games
Friendster was launched in 2002 described like:
“…an online community that connects people through networks of friends to get to know each other or make new friends.”
Its founder, Jonathan Abrams, made several requests Patentsincluding ways to connect users based on their relationships, manage connections, and prompt content uploads in a social network.
From 2010 through its conclusion in 2015, Friendster shifted focus from a network for connecting friends to “…the go-to social gaming destination”.
It allowed people to connect, play games, and share their progress.
The rise of today’s most popular social media platforms
In the early 2000s, we saw the launch of several top social networks that are still popular today.
It was launched in 2003, linkedin Creating a social networking space for professionals to strengthen their network connections for better career opportunities.
It allows people to connect with business acquaintances and college alumni, find jobs, and recommend career services.
Today, the network has more than 830 million members worldwide.
myspace
Soon after LinkedIn, Myspace will be launched in August 2003.
It was a space for friends, where you could create custom profiles, feature your favorite best friends, meet your friend’s friends, post blogs, share photos, post in forums, join groups, discover music, and play games.
In 2013, MySpace rebranding It is itself a music portal to connect people with their favorite artists and it is a music focused social network.
Witnessed in 2004 launch From Facebook (first known as Thefacebook). Created by Mark Zuckerberg to connect with other Harvard students, Facebook has exploded in popularity. By the end of 2004, it was over million users.
Since then, it has become the second largest social network, it boasts 3 billion users all over the world.
Flickr
in 2004, Flickr It became the first photo-sharing social network.
As of 2019, the network is defunct 100 million accounts And still considered Itself “…the world’s best online photo management and sharing app.”
In 2005, Alexis Ohanian and Steve Hoffman divorced reddit As a place where users can share content, discuss topics of interest, and vote on the most popular stories.
Since then, Reddit has developed a base of more than 430 million users, 100 thousand Communities, 13 billion posts and comments.
In 2006, Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass were released Twitter.
The idea behind their network was simple: to allow users to send short messages up to 140 characters to friends and acquaintances.
Now, the Twitter user base of 436 million Tweets can be sent up to 280 characters Pictures and video.
Tumblr
TumblrFounded in 2007 by David KarpIt allows users to post blogs, follow fellow bloggers, and comment on interesting content.
The community, which is now run by CEO Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress, is gone 472 million Users and 550 million blogs.
Sina Weibo
It was launched in 2009, Sina Weibo is China’s response on Twitter. The microblogging service currently has 582 million users.
Founded by Ben Silberman, Evan Sharp, and Paul Ciara pinterest in 2010.
set themselves up Visual discovery engine It allows users to bookmark photos as pins to create a virtual vision board full of ideas. The network is home to more than 433 million users and 200 billion pins.
2010 also saw the launch of Instagram By founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.
Photo and video sharing service, which was acquired by Facebook at 2012grew to 1.4 billion users and expand its features to include live video broadcasts and shoppable posts.
Quora
Former Facebook employees Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever have been fired Quora in 2010.
The social Q&A network aims to bring together people with questions and experts in specific fields to provide answers.
It’s home to 300 million users, incl Former Presidents and Popular Celebrities.
snap chat
In 2011, Stanford University students Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, and Bobby Murphy created it snap chat.
While initially considered “Terrible ideaBy fellow students in product design class, this network will eventually become one of the best social networks teens And home to more 347 million users.
cable
Founded by Nikolai and Pavel Durov cable in 2013. The social app focuses on providing secure instant messaging and voice calls.
It currently has more than 700 million users.
disagreement
Founded by gaming enthusiasts Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevsky disagreement As a voice, video and text communications service in 2015.
Since its inception, it has expanded from focusing on the gaming community to providing spaces for any interested community looking for a place to belong.
Discord is now home to over 150 million users and 19 million servers with 4 billion discussions.
Tik Tok
Tik Tok (or Douyin in China) launched internationally in 2017 after it was acquired by ByteDance and merged with Musical.ly.
known b leading destination For short video on mobile, it’s over 100,000,000 users and it Most downloaded app all over the world.
Club House
Founded by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth Club House In 2020 as a social network to host voice chat rooms.
Although it started as an invitation only, it is now open to the public and available to both Apple and Android users. As of February 2021, it was 10 million weekly active users.
honorific
Unfortunately, not all social networks have found long-term success. In this section, you will find some of the notable names in the history of social media that have come up, left their mark and faded into the sunset.
Orkut
At the time Facebook and Flickr entered the social scene, Google Launched Its first social network in 2004 – Orkut. splurge 300 million Members at its peak until it closed in 2014.
Google+
Another social product from Google, Google+which launched in 2011. Although it is integrated with other Google products, including YouTube, and boasts of 500 million “Identity” users, it will eventually be closed 2019.
vine
In 2012, Colin Kroll, Rus Yusupov, and Dominik Hofmann launched a unique social video network, vine. It allowed users to share short and looping videos. Twitter acquired The platform was launched in 2013 but was eventually shut down 2019.
periscope
Live video streaming service periscope It was launched in 2015 after being acquired by Twitter. Twitter eventually integrated live broadcasting into its network, shutting down Periscope as a standalone app in 2021.
More resources:
- A guide to social media algorithms and how they work
- Social media usage statistics for digital marketers in 2022
- 25 best movies about social media to watch
Featured image: RoBird/Shutterstock
