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Revolutionizing the dating world
While Match.com technically was created in 1993, the true launch of the actual dating site wasn't until 1995 when they offered a free beta. The creator Gary Kremen, took a 2500 dollar advance on his credit card to buy the domain name, when at the time, only about 5% of Americans even had internet access. And Today, Match.com is the most visited dating site. -
The creation of Six Degrees
In 1997, the website called "Six Degrees" was created. This is widely considered "The Birth of Social Media". Named after the the six degrees of separation theory, this website gave people the ability to create a profile as well as friend others. Link text -
Blogging
After the creation of 'weblogging' at the end of 1997, by Jorn Barger which he later broke it up into 'we blog' as a joke on his blog in 1999, and the name stuck. The internet started to boom. Although social media had yet to boom, by the year 2000 there was around 100 million people with access to the internet. The social media boom didn't happen until 2003. -
Myspace
By 2003, the social media boom had begun. Myspace came to the light. Similar to six degrees, the user was able to make a profile and make friends. Myspace was however not just a place to meet friends. There were many musicians that were discovered on Myspace. The musicians would put there music on there page and the producers would find them. Another cool thing about Myspace was that to edit the profile, the user would be essentially editing html code without even realizing the programming. -
Facebook
In 2004 The Facebook was launched by Mark Zuckerberg and a few of his room mates. Initially, the site was launched for just Harvard students, then expanded to other Ivy league schools as well as Stanford. In 2005 they dropped the 'The', making the name just FaceBook. Then in 2006 this expanded further, and if the user was 13 years or older (or just said that they were) was able to sign up. Interestingly enough, the name change ended up costing them 200 dollars, due to the domain name change. -
Twitter
In 2006, texting was very popular which led Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Noah Glass and Evan Williams to create Twitter. What set Twitter apart from the other competition was their unique 140 character limit. Similar to a text message. -
Tumblr
In 2007, David Karp created a microblogging website called Tumblr. Like a normal blog Tumblr got it's name from what is considered a short-form blog, called tumblelogs. Karp was extremely interested in such blogging, so between contracts at Karps software consulting company, him and Marco Arment were able to develop what is now called Tumblr. -
Later 2000's
In the later 2000's, social media started to become a major point for marketing purposes. Whether it was ads on facebook or commercials before youtube videos. Many business were using social media platforms to market their goods. This is obviously because social media is one of the fasting growing technologies to this day. With many young impressionable users. -
Snapchat
In 2011, a group of Stanford friends Reggie Brown, Evan Spiegal, and Bobby Murphy got together with the idea to create a disappearing picture application. This later became SnapChat. There purpose was to take the stress away from sending a "not so perfect" picture. By 2012, there were 25 images being sent per second. -
Vine
Although, there are a lot of major successes when it comes to social media. There are also failures. Vine was launched in 2013, as a short form video hosting service. A user could record a short clips, and post it for the world to see. However, with the emergence of snapchat having video around this time as well Instagram developing video around this time, it was virtually impossible succeed. After whole uploads were disabled. -
Current Social Media
In current day, there are almost too many social media platforms to count. However, each platform now serves a specific purposes, which is why they succeed. LinkedIn, for getting jobs. Instagram, made for someone who best expresses themselves with pictures or marketing. Twitter, small amount of information, also the best way for some people to get in touch with celebrities. -
Future of Social Media
The future of social media will always be bright. Everyday there is a new form of social media that comes out. All that it takes is a little attention, high active users and ads, and this a a fantastic was to move up.
