5 Historical Moments For Social Networks

Almost 60% of the world’s population, according to Hootsuite’s 2023 Digital Report, is the leading platform for managing social networks.

Its history is full of crucial moments, such as the launch of Facebook, which would revolutionize the world, the creation of YouTube and the launch of Instagram Stories. Hootsuite wanted to highlight the 5 most important moments in the history of social networks:

The birth of the first social network

One of the first social networks was SixDegrees.com, created in the mid-90s since you could create a profile, contact lists, and send messages within the platform. In any case, it is not certain that it was the original because the first social networks emerged in the late 90s and early 2000s, and the technology was already in its infancy in the 70s.

Facebook and the wave of new social networks

2003 Mark Zuckerberg launched Facemash, followed by Facebook in 2004, which registered one million users that same year.

Around the same time, there was a wave of new social networks:

• LinkedIn, aimed at the business community.
• Photo-sharing sites like Photobucket and Flickr.
• The birth of WordPress is everywhere today.
• The emergence of YouTube for video sharing.

, and Reddit, the news and gossip factory.

The arrival of Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram

In 2006 Twitter appeared with the first tweets that were last-minute updates such as “Cleaning my house” or “I’m hungry.” In 2007, the hashtag arrived to differentiate Twitter from its competitors, Facebook and Tumblr, a symbol that has helped political organizers and ordinary citizens to mobilize, promote and raise awareness.

We arrived in 2010 with the launch of Pinterest and Instagram, the most downloaded application worldwide, while Twitch appeared a year later.

2014, the year of the selfie

Twitter proclaimed 2014 the ” Year of the Selfie ” after Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar photo, and a year later, live streaming began with Meerkat, the first app to kick off the live streaming craze.

New features and launches of Instagram

In 2016, Instagram Stories was launched, and a year later, Douyin, a ByteDance application, was launched outside of China under the name TikTok.

In the last 5 years, Instagram has launched a new app, IGTV (2018), and a new video feature, Reels (2019), merging in 2021 as Instagram Video.

Thus, social networks have constantly evolved to adapt to the needs of their users, offering more and more features and services that encourage interaction and engagement, including artificial intelligence.

Thanks to it, it is possible to boost the advances offered by social networks, either by facilitating the creation of content for social marketing or by providing more fluid customer service through social networks.

In this way, the future of social networks will depend on Artificial Intelligence since it simplifies content creation and offers more relevant and personalized content adapted to each user based on their interests and behaviors on the platform.