The History of Social Media in 33 Key Moments

The site amassed around one million users before being bought out for $125 million, only to shutter in 2000.

The actual answer to “when was the first social media site launched” is debatable. SixDegrees was certainly one of the first, but you have to define what a social media site is before you can say which is the first.

For example, the PLATO system, developed by the University of Illinois in 1970, had many features of an early social media network but was largely used in academia.

So, how old is social media? It depends, but early social media platforms started to pop up in the late 90s to early 2000s, with the technology budding as early as the 70s.

Hot or Not (2000)

After being sold off a few times, it’s currently rebranded as the dating app, Chat & Date.

Friendster (2002)

Launched in 2002, Friendster was originally going to be a dating site that would help set up people with friends in common. You could create a profile, include “status updates,” and reveal your mood.

Unfortunately, the site’s spike in popularity in 2003 caught the company by surprise. The flood of traffic took a toll on Friendster’s servers, impacting users, who increasingly looked to connect elsewhere.

Friendster rival Myspace (originally styled as MySpace) quickly became the go-to site for millions of hip teens.

Its customizable public profiles (which often featured music, videos, and badly shot, half-nude selfies) were visible to anyone, a contrast to Friendster’s private profiles.

2005 marked the apex of Myspace. The site had 25 million users and was the fifth most popular site in the US when it sold to NewsCorp. And that was the start of its decline from ultra-trendy to ultra-tacky.

In 2003, Mark Zuckerberg launched Facemash, described as Harvard University’s answer to Hot or Not. “The Facebook” followed in 2004. Registering its one-millionth user that same year, the site became just “Facebook” in 2005.

Around the same time, a tidal wave of other social media sites swept ashore:

• LinkedIn emerged, targeting the business community
• Photosharing sites like Photobucket and Flickr came into being
• Social bookmarking sites like del.ici.ous popped up
• The now ubiquitous platform WordPress was born
• Sites for teens like Nexopia launched, bringing sparkly, customizable profiles with them
• Video-sharing came onto the scene with YouTube
• News aggregator/snark factory Reddit arrived

Twitter (née twttr) took flight in 2006.

TechCrunch reported twttr’s first users were sending breaking life updates like: “Cleaning my apartment” and “Hungry.” (My, how times have(n’t) changed!)

LinkedIn “in the Black” (2006)

In sharp contrast to other networks, LinkedIn was the first to offer users paid premium packages. Its Jobs and Subscriptions area, the site’s first premium business line, helped bring in revenue in the early days.

YouTube makes partners, the OG influencers (2007)

In May 2007, YouTube introduced its partnership program. The partnership program made it possible for YouTubers like Mr. Beast to make millions today. This moment essentially marked the beginning of social media influencers.

In 2007, the social network described as “Twitter meets YouTube and WordPress” came a-tumblin’ along when 17-year-old David Karp launched Tumblr from his bedroom.

Soon after, the term micro-blogging became widely used to describe both Twitter and Tumblr, noting the exchange of ‘small’ amounts of content.

The hashtag arrives (2007)

Hashtags have also helped plant the seeds that sprouted movements such as #Occupy, #BlackLivesMatter, and #MeToo. Also, timesucks like #SundayFunday and #Susanalbumparty.

As the story goes, Twitter early adopter Chris Messina, proposed the hashtag for organizing tweets. It wasn’t until a couple of months later, that the #SanDiegoFire hashtag was sparked to aggregate tweets and updates about the California wildfires. In 2009, Twitter capitalized on the hashtag by adding hyperlink capabilities.

Welcome Weibo (2009)

China’s Sina Weibo, or simply Weibo, is essentially a Facebook and Twitter hybrid that launched in 2009, the same year Facebook and Twitter were banned in the country.

FourSquare “check in” drops (2009)

You may not remember Foursquare (or weren’t yet born during its heyday), but chances are, you’ve used the company’s tech. Foursquare’s geolocation API was used for geofilters and location tagging in apps like Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram.

Grindr revolutionizes the hookup (2009)

Introducing Instagram (2010)

Instagram posts have become quite a bit more sophisticated, largely due to the platform’s success, and Instagram’s now the most downloaded app globally.

Pinterest has us pining to pin (2010)

Pinterest went live in closed beta in 2010, launching in 2011. Pinning quickly became a favorite new hobby (and verb) for domestic gods and goddesses.

Snapchat’s disappearing act (2011)

The app’s early success tapped into the ephemeral nature of life’s moments, allowing users to post content that would vanish after 24 hours. (Not to mention giving us all the ability to puke rainbows.)

The disappearing snaps appealed to the teen demographic the app first attracted. Snapchat was also the perfect alternative for teens to find their friends and flee their families on Facebook.

Google Plus wants in on the party (2011)

Unfortunately, the social network’s launch was no match for social juggernauts like Facebook and Twitter. Google Plus struggled to accrue its competitors’ staggering usage numbers, and it eventually fizzled.

Twitch launches (2011)

Twitch, the hugely popular video game live-streaming site, was initially launched as a subsidiary of Justin.tv, a general interest streaming site that launched in 2007.

Facebook celebrates one billion and acquires Instagram (2012)

“If you’re reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you. Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life,” Zuckerberg said.

This was also the year Facebook acquired Instagram for a billion dollars, a notable moment in the timeline of social networks.

Vine reshapes the way we view video (2013)

Vine launched in 2013, but not before Twitter bought the video-sharing app for $30 billion. The premise was fairly simple—videos shared on Vine could only be up to 6 seconds long—but quickly spawned a distinct genre of humor that still resonates today.

Despite the rapid success, the app had a fairly quick demise due to apps like Snapchat and Instagram following with their own video-sharing capabilities.

Slack dropped the same year as Google Hangouts and brought social media to the corporate world in a way LinkedIn didn’t.

Slack offers workers a place to socialize online within corporations and industry professionals a place to socialize with others in similar Slack groups.

While early social media influencers built followings on places like YouTube and Twitch, the monetization of their followers leveled up with Patreon.

It was created by developer Sam Yam and musician Jack Conte, who wanted to create an income stream from his YouTube videos. The platform allows patrons to subscribe to monthly or exclusive creator content.

Now, live-streaming is a standard feature in major apps like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. RIP to Periscope, 2015-2021.

Instagram launches Stories (2016)

Filters, stickers, polls, hashtags, and highlights to enhance Stories have made the app even more addictive.

In 2023, Instagram announced “Live Story Replay,” a feature that allows you to replay your live videos on your Instagram Stories.

The U.S. election and social media’s fake news crisis (2016)

You could argue that 2016 was a no-good, very bad year for social media and, by extension, democracy.

Facebook has since revealed that 126 million Americans were exposed to content by Russian agents during the election. In 2018, Facebook, Twitter, and Google representatives appeared before the U.S. Congress to testify as part of ongoing investigations into Russia’s attempts to influence the elections.

A star (TikTok) is born (2017)

Douyin, an app by ByteDance, was released outside of China under the name TikTok. TikTok’s popularity burns through Asian countries. It became widely popularized in North America in 2019, at about the same time Lil Nas X released Old Town Road on the platform, which quickly went viral.

Twitter doubled its signature character limit from 140 to 280 characters.

Going through mounting stress to handle knowledge privateness, Zuckerberg participated in 5 days of hearings earlier than the U.S. Congress.

Instagram’s foray into video (2018 – 2021)

In 2021, Instagram merged IGTV and Feed movies right into a single format: Instagram Video. This created 4 differing kinds of video codecs on the app: Reels, Video, Tales, and Lives.

Social commerce emerges with Fb and Instagram Retailers (2020)

The world pandemic shifted the way in which individuals seen ecommerce, rushing up adoption charges astronomically.

Supply: Mattress.threads on Instagram

New platforms like Clubhouse and BeReal proceed to interrupt floor (2020-2022)

As we entered a brand new decade, social media platforms continued to pop up throughout the digital panorama.

BeReal, a photo-sharing app that prompts customers to submit one unfiltered picture per day, made a giant splash in 2022. Although it was at one level the preferred social networking app in the App Retailer, it nonetheless stays to be seen if BeReal is the following TikTok.

Supply: BeReal

Elon Musk buys Twitter, app updates comply with (2022)

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