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 RU-vid 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 - RU-vid
Added shorts and stories
Thank you for watching. Let me know which platforms have been your favorite?
21 май 2023
