Social networking sites have been steadily rising in the past decade. Some of the biggest names in the recent social culture are Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Let’s start with a little history lesson about the humble beginnings of these social networking giants.
First off, let us begin with Facebook. Prior to its launch in February 2004, Mark Zuckerberg had experimented with a number of different web products from his Harvard dormitory. In fact, his first attempt targeted at the Harvard student body was called FaceMash, which drew criticism from the University and some students, prompting Mark to drop the service. Soon after, he came up with another idea. Originally called TheFacebook, Mark, with the financial help from Eduardo Saverin, had managed to spread the core idea of Facebook across the dorms of Harvard, which went on to Stanford and Yale. Eventually, TheFacebook then garnered enough recognition and reception, and was officially named Facebook as of August 2005.
Back track a few months from Facebook’s revelation, YouTube made its first appearance in early 2005. Three individuals, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, met during their time working for another online company, Paypal. Apparently, the guys formulated the idea of a video sharing platform one night after getting frustrated while trying to email a video clip. The Youtube trademark domain name was registered on Feb 14th 2005 and the site went live in May. Youtube was instantly a roaring success and news of the site spread by word of mouth which fuelled its initial growth. Youtube officially launched at the end of 2005 after securing funds of $3.5 million from Sequoia Capital, followed by a further $8 million during April 2006.
In the beginning of 2006, the board members of a podcasting company, Odeo, held a daylong brainstorming session to come up with new ideas. While sitting in a park on a children's slide and eating Mexican food, Jack Dorsey