Your social media is older than your kids
If LinkedIn was a person, it would be stressed out 23 year old that graduated 2 years ago looking for a job in a world that has changed radically since it left high school.
I wanted to see all social networks laid out on a timeline, so here is it. I added few milestones that had nothing to do with social media at the time, but changed everything about how we use it: the first iPhone, the App Store, the first Android phone, the first iPad and the first public version of ChatGPT.
A few things jump out once it’s laid out like this.
Almost every network we still use daily was founded before the iPhone launched in 2007. Facebook, YouTube, Reddit and Twitter were all desktop websites first.
The three years after the iPhone there was a period of quiet. Then, once the App Store was bedded in and the iPad had arrived, you get Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp in quick succession. These are the first networks that were mobile-first.
ChatGPT is not a social network. I actually feel it creates more silos that collaborations. But it’s there as a milestone because every network has had to decide what to do about generated content.
SixDegrees
Widely credited as the first recognisable social network. Profiles, friend lists, and not much else.
- · 27 years old
LiveJournal
Blogging with friends lists. LiveJournal set the template for a lot of what came later.
Friends Reunited
Built in Barnet by Steve and Julie Pankhurst to track down old schoolmates. The UK's first social network hit, sold to ITV for £120m in 2005.
Friendster
Founded in 2002, opened to the public in March 2003. A million users by July.
- · 23 years old
LinkedIn
Older than your kids and still here, still asking you to congratulate people on work anniversaries.
- · 23 years old
MySpace
Introduced ludicrous levels of customisation via HTML, autoplaying music.
- · 22 years old
Xing
Launched in Hamburg as openBC, the German answer to LinkedIn. Renamed Xing in 2006 and floated the same year.
Orkut
Google's first social network, named after the engineer who built it. Ignored in the US, huge in Brazil and India. Closed in 2014.
- · 22 years old
Facebook
Launched as thefacebook.com for Harvard students.
- · 22 years old
Flickr
Photo sharing before the phone had a decent camera.
Hyves
The Netherlands' own social network, big in Belgium too. Outlasted Facebook there until 2011, closed in 2013.
Bebo
Huge in the UK and Ireland for a few years.
- · 21 years old
YouTube
Domain registered in February, first video uploaded in April. It was never intended as a video streaming network, now it's TV for many people.
- · 21 years old
Reddit
The front page of the internet, kinda.
- · 20 years old
Twitter
First tweet sent on 21 March 2006. Public that July. Renamed X in 2023, though most people still call it Twitter.
- · 19 years old
Tumblr
Short-form blogging with reblogs. Sold to Yahoo, then sold again, and again.
iPhone goes on sale
Announced in January, on sale on 29 June 2007. No App Store until the following year.
App Store opens
Launched with 500 apps, a day before the iPhone 3G. Social networks could now live on the home screen instead of in a browser tab.
First Android phone goes on sale
The T-Mobile G1, also known as the HTC Dream. Android had been announced the previous November. The other half of the mobile audience arrives.
Foursquare
Check-ins and mayorships. Location as a social object.
- · 16 years old
WhatsApp
Incorporated in February 2009, on the App Store by that autumn. Messaging as a network.
- · 16 years old
Pinterest
Closed beta in March 2010, invite-only for a long time afterwards.
iPad goes on sale
Announced in January, on sale 3 April 2010. The lean-back screen for the same feeds.
Ping
Apple's music social network, bolted on to iTunes. "Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes," said Steve Jobs. Closed two years later.
- · 15 years old
Instagram
iPhone only at launch. The first big network that could not have started on a desktop.
- · 15 years old
WeChat
Tencent's everything app, launched as Weixin.
- · 15 years old
Twitch
Spun out of Justin.tv for game streaming.
Google+
Circles. Shut down in 2019.
- · 15 years old
Snapchat
Started as Picaboo in July 2011, renamed that September. Introduced disappearing messages. Fun fact, a colleague created an app called Picaboo at the same time and was forced to rename it.
Vine
Six-second looping videos. Bought by Twitter before it launched, killed in 2017.
- · 13 years old
Telegram
Messaging with channels and groups that behave like broadcast media.
Musical.ly
Lip-sync videos. Later merged into TikTok.
Periscope
Live streaming from your phone, bought by Twitter. Shut down in 2021.
- · 11 years old
Discord
Voice and text for gamers, then for everyone.
- · 10 years old
TikTok
Launched as Douyin in China in September 2016. TikTok internationally in 2017, merged with Musical.ly in 2018.
- · 9 years old
Mastodon
First release in March 2016, announced publicly in October. Federated, open source.
- · 6 years old
BeReal
One photo a day, at a random time, of whatever you are actually doing.
- · 6 years old
Clubhouse
Drop-in audio rooms. A pandemic phenomenon.
ChatGPT goes public
Released as a research preview on 30 November 2022. A hundred million users in two months.
- · 3 years old
Threads
Meta's text app, bolted on to Instagram accounts. Ten million sign-ups in seven hours.
Twitter becomes X
Elon Musk retired the bird and renamed Twitter to X, nineteen days after Threads launched. The domain didn't follow until May 2024.
- · 2 years old
Bluesky
Invite-only beta from February 2023, open to everyone from 6 February 2024.
Notes on the dates
Launch dates are slippery. Companies are founded, soft-launch, open to the public, then rebrand.
Photo by Rohit Tandon on Unsplash