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1997: A Social Networking Site is Born
In 1997, American entrepreneur, Andrew Weinreich established SixDegrees.com ,the first social networking business that allowed individuals to connect with friends and family members, as well as form relationships with other users. Jules McGrath -
1999: Msn Messenger
Msn Messenger was first created by Microsoft. Msn Messenger was the first live cross platform messaging system. Introduced basic messaging systems 7 different updated versions were made between 1999 and 2006. Jabari Queene -
2000: Hot or Not?
In 2000, Two college roommates James Hong and Jim Young created the social media site Hot or Not. This site allowed users to post selfies to the website for other users to rate their attractiveness from 1-10. Jacob -
2001: Wikipedia was Created
Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger created wikipedia in 2001. Which became the first major free encyclopedia on the internet.Wikipedia is also the first website where anyone can post and peer review. The website now has over 5 million articles. Jabari Queene -
2002: Friendster
The site Friendster was developed in 2002. Jacob -
2003: Friendster is Released
In 2003, the site 'Friendster' launched. Which allowed users to get in contact with each other and allowed them to send content back and forth. Jacob -
2005: Youtube is Created
Steven Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim were the creators of Youtube.Youtube is a video streaming service, first to compensate major creators, significantly impacted what videos or trends become popular and has the largest archive of videos in the world. Jabari Queene -
2006: The Uprising of Twitter
For Twitter founders: Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, EvanWilliams, and Noah Glass, their social networking company was about to reach new levels of success. The business switched from being an exclusive registration, to a global network. Twitter now has about 206 million users and is one of the top social media networks. Jules McGrath -
2007: Youtube Partnerships
Already extremely popular, Youtube now makes deals with those that create content and they split revenue. Jacob -
2007: Twitter, Meet the Hashtag
Following the popularity of Twitter, in 2007 the hashtag symbol (#) became apparent to all Twitter users. First created by Chris Messina, this symbol helped organizations, businesses, and individuals promote awareness for important social issues and random thoughts. Jules McGrath -
2008: Facebook Continues to Grow
Facebook became the most popular social networking service. Leading to Myspace becoming outdated and later sold. Facebook became the largest social networking site in the world with over 2.4 billion users. Jabari Queene -
2010: Instagram Launches
In the summer of 2010, Kevin Systrom introduced Instagram to the social media world. A year after its release,Instagram announced that it had 5 million users. However, currently in 2021, one of the most popular social media platforms has roughly one billion monthly active users. Jules McGrath -
2010: Instagram Hits iOS
Instagram originally launched For iOS in 2010, with one million registered users within the first two months. Tre’Velle Forrest -
2011: Snapchat was Created
Snapchat was launched in 2011. Snapchat is a social media service where users take pictures and videos and can share them with friends and family. Snapchat is popular with today’s youth, over 200 million people log on daily. Jabari Queene -
2012: Instagram Drops for Android
In 2012, the Android version of Instagram was released. The company was also bought out by Facebook. Tre’Velle Forrest -
2014: The Year of the Selfie
According to Twitter, 2014 was the “Year of the Selfie” after Ellen DeGeneres’ photo taken at the 2014 Oscars. Since DeGeneres’ record breaking selfie, millions of other selfies have been taken and shared via social networking sites. Jules McGrath -
2015: Periscope
In 2015, the first live streaming app 'Periscope' was launched. Jacob -
2015: Direct Messaging
In 2015 Messaging on the app was released which allows you communicated through direct messages. Tre’Velle Forrest -
2016: Instagram Live
Instagram live was introduced in November of 2016. Which allows users to live stream to other on the app. Tre’Velle Forrest -
2018: Instagram Switches Owners
In 2018, the head of the company resigned, and new leader Adan Mosseri was put into office. Tre’Velle Forrest -
2018: Instagram IGTV
Instagram continues to add new features and users are now able to post and watch videos much longer than 1 minute and even developed a whole new app. Jacob -
2020: Co-Watching
In 2020, Instagram introduced co-watching. It allows users to share post while on a video call with another user. Tre’Velle Forrest