Friendster,
LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook: The Biz Grows Up
In
2002, social networking hit really its stride with the launch
of Friendster.
Friendster used a degree of separation concept similar to that of the
now-defunct SixDegrees.com, refined it into a routine dubbed the
“Circle of Friends”.
Within
a year after its launch, Friendster boasted more than three million
registered users and a ton of investment interest. Unfortunately, the
service has since seen more than its fair share of technical
difficulties, questionable management decisions, and a resulting drop
in its North American fortunes. Although briefly enjoying success in
Indonesia and in the Philippines, Friendster has since abandoned
social networking and now exists solely as an online gaming site.
Introduced
just a year later in 2003, LinkedIn took a decidedly more serious,
sober approach to the social networking phenomenon. Rather than being
a mere playground for former classmates, teenagers, and cyberspace
Don Juans, LinkedIn was, and still is, a networking resource for
business people who want to connect with other professionals. In
fact, LinkedIn contacts are referred to as “connections.” Today,
LinkedIn boasts more than 297 million members.
MySpace
also launched in 2003. Though it no longer resides upon the social
networking throne in many English-speaking countries – that honor
now belongs to Facebook just about everywhere – MySpace was once
the perennial favorite. It did so by tempting the key young adult
demographic with music, music videos, and a funky, feature-filled
environment.
As
expected, the ubiquitous Facebook now leads the global social
networking pack. Founded, like many social networking sites, by
university students who initially peddled their product to other
university students, Facebook launched in 2004 as a Harvard-only
exercise and remained a campus-oriented site for two full years
before finally opening to the general public in 2006. Yet, even by
that time, Facebook was considered big business. So much so that, by
2009, Silicon Valley bigwigs such as Paypal co-founder and
billionaire Peter Thiel invested tens of millions of dollars just to
see it flourish.
0 comentarios:
Publicar un comentario