Most Popular Social Media Platforms 1997 - 2023
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ค. 2023
- This is an update to the original video published in 2020. I've included more data for Chinese social media platforms and included some that I left out such as TH-cam and Telegram, since they're no longer just basic apps for video and messaging. In this data visualization video I look at the most popular social media networks based on active accounts during that time.
These stats come from Wikipedia, Statista, archive.org and from Google Books searches. I did not include those platforms that did not report stats. Some of the data includes approximate numbers as the data available skipped years.
In the video I included screenshots of certain platforms from the list as they looked during that particular year. The platform thumbnails:
1997 - Bolt
Founded as a community for teens
1998 - Classmates
Biggest collection of yearbooks online
1999 - Open Diary
Introduced commenting and privacy settings
2000 - theGlobe
Chatrooms and online clubs
2001 - PlanetAll
Bought and killed by Amazon
2002 - LiveJournal
Still Popular in Russia for Microblogging
2003 - MySpace
First global social network
2004 - Orkut
From Google, became popular in Brazil
2005 - Friendster
Created before MySpace, Hi5 and Facebook
2006 - QQ
Messaging and web portal from China
2007 - Hi5
Social media with focus on dating
2008 - VKontakte
Russian clone of Facebook
2009 - Facebook
Infamous update of news feed
2010 - Tagged
Originally a social network for teens
2011 - Tumblr
Microblogging and social network
2012 - QZone
Social network from China
2013 - OK.ru
Russian social network
2014 - Reddit
Content discovery and discussion
2015 - Vine
Short looping video clips
2016 - Snapchat
Video messaging with goofy filters
2017 - WeChat
Reaches 1 million mini apps
2018 - Whatsapp
Implemented stories
2019 - Facebook
Testing redesign
2020 - TikTok
Dance challenges
2021 - Messenger
Meta's original messaging app
2022 - TH-cam
Added shorts and stories
Thank you for watching. Let me know which platforms have been your favorite?
It never occured to me just how small Twitter actually is in comparison to most social media sites. I mean, it's smaller than Reddit yet it seems like most people know what Twitter is, whereas Reddit is still somewhat outside of mainstream knowledge.
Even more, about 97% of tweets are made by just a quarter of twitter users.
@@ALYTALyrics To be fair, most social media sites have a strong majority of lurkers who never post or comment anything
@@jemandetwas1 that's true, good point.
Very similar to tumblr
Because a lot of famous people use Twitter
Tumblr: *remains steadily on the chart with its small but dedicated userbase*
@staff in December 2019: *bans porn*
Tumblr within a year: peace, i'm out
I was actually around during the golden age of MySpace. kinda lost interest just before it went downhill. But I actually kinda miss it. That might just be nostalgia talking through.
Considering your name, I'm surprised you left it at all XD No but I do miss it too, you could express yourself more unlike boring facebook.
Today it would be just something else
There is spacehey
Hard to believe that people that were teens in Bolts era are now 35-40 years old!
The small size of Twitter is a relief. The large size of Tiktok is terrifying.
Twitter has never been big its just very loud
@@flashback4588 true true factual
@@flashback4588it's a good thing it's not big
The scary part is - tiktok's even bigger than this. The tiktok with 1.5 million users is the international one. There's another 700 million on Douyin which is just tiktok in chinese. That means tiktok in total has almost as many users as youtube....
Scary right?
you mean 1.5 billion?
I hate this era of social networks, everyone is like Tiktok or IG, seems everything is made for showing off, not even chatting anymore
Because those apps are actually made to show off their media. We chat on Facebook and Reddit.
TH-cam Is Our Most & Favorite Platform In The Planet!!!!
In my country, the platform blocked bloggers and state channels that expressed a point of view opposite to the American one.
TH-cam is a world censor
I like telegram to
RIGHT
yup.
Chad 🗿
Thanks for the new updated numbers!
The next decade is going to be interesting with Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook
Montana in United States banned tiktok.
@@Raspberries9372 Exactly!!! It’s a sinking ship literally
Nobody knows what Facebook is..
No, the Fediverse.. That will become interesting IMO
Instagram and tiktok were growing fast
Bro what app/editing software do you use to make these videos? Is it a template?
I never got into myspace. Here in Canada, Nexopia was pretty popular. At least in my part of Canada.
Good channel, Thank you for video🤑😁
Great video :]
Most intriguing is how small Twitter has always been when compared to other SM networks, even though its name seemed to be in evidence more so than several larger ones. Instagram is another surprise, for itnis a whole lot smaller than WhatsApp half the size in fact.
Incorrect about Twitter, do not trust this research. Look at other sources.
PlanetAll - Bought and *killed* by Amazon
Me: wait what
On wikipedia it says that in july 2012 Instagram had 80 million users. Why in yours does it say it had 178 million something users? Im confused specially since you said you used wikipedia as a source. How did you get that figure?
Surprising how small Reddit is when it manages to have more useful information on it than all the other social medias combined (minus youtube). Its the only social media ive used that has made me feel like im not wasting my time, because I can talk about the things I like to people who would appreciate it. Sometimes when you want an answer to a question on Google, the best way to get it nowadays is to put Reddit after the question.
Though thats because Reddit is basically a really big collection of internet forums than something like Twitter. 😅
4:47 legends knows that the decrease in tiktok user is because it was banned in india 🙃
They moved to youtube
Facebook turbo charged in January of 2009 😂😂😂
What is the name of the music in the video?
I’m so sad to see how far LiveJournal has fallen. It will always have a special place in my heart 🥺
В России его использовал для тестов пропагондисткий ботов в 2009 году.
Digg never came on the list? Surprising.
It’s funny cause that was bigger then Reddit until 2010 i believe
Can you do GPS wars, please?
In sweden we had a social media called Lunarstorm between 1999 and around 2010.
how do you make this type of videos
Dude next do a, best selling sneaker brand of all time vid
What happened to Facebook in Jan. 2009 to suddenly explode their popularity?
We will never know
It was expanded as an international platform. Before that, you could make an account outside of the US, but it was all in English, and not localized at all. Throughout 2008, it was localized to many other languages, which helped lowering the barrier of entry for many more people, since now the language was no longer an issue (I'm sure there must be some other factors as well, but I do know about the language thing).
It was the shift between myspace to Facebook, I remember during this time myspace changed a LOT. Ppl didn't really like it, so everyone started to shift to Facebook. Also during this time, iphones and android were being more accessible to ppl, and Facebook was basically a stock app when u bought the phone, myspace failed to develop an good app during this time as well
It was the creation of the news feed I think.
cukrberk si zrovna honil pero oholil si prdel a pak ho to napadlo ne?
Bebo was my place as a teenager. I miss how much i could customise my profile.
Friendster was the very first Social Media I personally use, in late 2007
At first, Classmates was easy to get out of. I just let my yearly membership runout. And never renewed. Some years later I was allowed to delete my account completely. And all my past messages. I understand that became harder to do years later. Ancestry was like that too. Hard to get out of.
I miss Bolt
What is the music name?
normally the oldest social media- chat is the sms (GSM)
Most popular apps Yes, witch apps/plattforms are the mostly used though?
Why you don't added Viber???
Do costumers need TH-cam or Twitter in the age of technoogy??????
I dont know the exact rules of categorizing these socmed platforms.
Sometimes friendster is there, sometimes its not.
In one of these, AOL was on top for the most of 90s, now its not even there.
Which one is it???!!!
Low-key thought that myspace would've had more in its heyday. And it's kinda funny how good the pandemic was for TH-cam
Wrre is irc ? I used mirc a lot in the early 2000s
Xanga is missing from this. It was the Facebook of the early 2000s.
What song is this?
What did happen on the 2nd of March, 1996?
I started with Myspace, Hi5 and Tagged :(
What about threads ? Going up ?
Eagerly waiting for the next big Social media app. With TH-cam being being the 1 spot
Threads?
@@sjommli😂
@@sjommlino
missing Myspace much 😢
where can i watch like this in real time?
Where is ICQ though? That was big with 100 million people on the platform. I think this graph of popular social media platforms is inaccurate if it misses this huge platform
Waiting for the Threads app coming up lol 😂
Fr
That will never happen hhaa. Very funny. X is also ded
@@MelroyvandenBerg 2 weeks ago it was the fastest growing social media that’s why people would say this
How are WhatsApp and messenger social media?? Aren’t they messaging apps?
Are you new generation don't you? That's what social media is about and that's why IG and tiktok sucks
how do u make these charts
ChatGPT
Music?
I guess I lived in the Black Planet bubble in college cause it never made the list.
Instagram is not for me because looking at the pictures reminds me of My Mom taking them and putting it in a family photo album.
What about Google+ ?! It does not appear!
Backsound tittle please? 🙏🏻
Sounds a bit like BF2 theme. but I know it's not.
@@MelroyvandenBerg thankyouuuu so much, this might help…🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
@@Adtysnt_Epic Motivation by Roman Cano
@@tasen25iguess48 thank youuuuuu🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Isn't TH-cam the 2nd most visited website after Google? How can it be below Facebook?
Facebook it's most used in the app and on google they use a little less.
What about msn messenger
There's no way Yahoo isn't on this list. Yahoo chat rooms, games, etc., was huge around 2005
There is also no google in the list. Bro , they are search engine , not social media.
So yahoo was only a search engine? Damn... not sure why I had my own profile and page then... 🤪
@@artemia79 google also have gmail etc. It's still search engine.
@@artemia79 if you want th-cam.com/video/1a3WL1iOvnE/w-d-xo.html
@@dona.doni.69 Then why FB messenger is separately mentioned there ? Yahoo messenger should have been there.
The lower the users, the higher the thinking
What is bolt app,QQ app,friendster.....😢
QQ is a chinese app
I'm not seeing ICQ
Threads: hold my beer
You think so?
Threads failed
Had no idea social media was over 25 years old.
Just know most youtube channels won't get views, and the few that do, barrage with advertising/hype. Does help to know the Facebook lawsuits, censorship across platforms and be like homer Simpson backing away into the bushes when seeing people prone to being chronically offended or misinforming others (this is a good channel for getting info). At least there is some good every once in a while (some things are preserved pretty well and video game strategies), but I wouldn't be too dependent upon how fickle social media can be.
😂
@killergodgamer5699 in the time that passed I never imagined the silly Twitter X rebrand, instagram threads Twitter knockoff with no direct messaging, and Instagram banning pokemon channels and myself from commenting for no reason. It's crazy.
@andrejohansson9582 same thing but yes rebrands and new ideas go hand in hand. Lol geocities, angelfire and frames forums are old school.
I remember being on bolt 👴🏻
I was expecting to see Skype come in. Kind of surprised.
I didn't know whether to add all the instant messengers or just the ones that featured additional social media functions.
@@CaptainGizmo Why is linkedin growing so fast?
@@CaptainGizmo You could add a new video to just add all.. All social media, video, content, chatting apps. etc.
Myspace EMO days 🎉🎉🎉❤❤
umm AOL had like 25 million users in 1999 why are they not on this list
@captain ?
@@MelroyvandenBerg O Captain! My Captain!
You didn’t count Cyworld from South Korea
why in 4:46 TikTok loses so many users?
I forgot that LiveJournal was/is a thing.
where is Viber?
Tik tok whatsapp and snapchat are goated
I always wonder when the next big thing will takeover, and what it will be. VR social media? An app that puts all in one? Who knows...
I do hope Tik Tok goes away by then!
Also, could you do one without exclusive-to-certain-country apps?
Vr/ar is here now so will see you
Facebook has got all in one and additional features like groups
@@AntoMike-sy9sqEh I suppose, but it's already dying out for most people under 40. Plus the company's issues make me wana avoid it even more.
I wonder that Telegram is still not in Top-5. In my opinion it is the best messenger ever.
Better than WhatsApp 😂
No chance
My love TH-cam ❤
No Discord? Thats horse xD
I am proud to grow up with prime Reddit
Imagine growing up with Reddit period, it should’ve been digg
QQ : my time has come😔
VK is not a clone!
Why is there more than 2x the amount of users as ppl on the planet-
Also where is discord 😢
Because most people use multiple platforms
@@rgonzalo511 makes sense
If Newgrounds is not social media, TH-cam is not either.
We are talking now via TH-cam. but I agree. it's not really social media.
@@MelroyvandenBergIt is a social media
TH-cam is a social media. If it's not then what the hell is that?
TH-cam is going to beat facebook ngl
Wow! I felt old when my little brother laughed & said "who uses Facebook, it's for old people" hahaha I mean damn... & He's always in TikTok yet I never tried or made a TikTok account
Of course he likes TikTok little does he realize he’s on a sinking ship
Never heard of wechat
its Chinas main media lol
We all know yt is bettwr than tt
Agreed, but it's not like that's a very high bar. TH-cam has plenty of issues.
@@catoticneutral idk what issues can you explain?
@@Losqq Do I really need to explain all of it? Don't you use this website?
No
Taringa nooooo😢porque
Where's msn messenger, yahoo messenger, mcq & ICQ....
No wonder Skype was lowest one
Where is Viber ? 😢
Facebook and Instagram Twitter TH-cam my favourite ❤️
What is so special about facebook? Most of these platforms or heavy censorship websites
One and only TH-cam
Facebook = 3 billion? isnt that too high? 3 out of 8 people are using facebook?
Wait, are there still people using Facebook?
All of the boomers
@@gerudoqueenriju they are creeping already in through twitter
@@Kamelot19 Glad I left after the fascist took over.
Oops had to scroll all the way down to find a comment of a salty fella 😂
@@gerudoqueenriju ‘’Fascist’’ Let me guess u spend most of your time in politics? I can tell just by your attitude as well.
ВК ван лав
Tiktok lah
some unfair - using a chinise SN at this video
BBM isn't there
i kinda dont believe that instagram is still so good. its a trash