Since its inception, social networks have become the most widely used means of communication worldwide. Although they began as spaces for interaction between users, little by little they were adopting new purposes.
Today, social networks are ideal places for brands to promote their products, since companies had to adapt to the new behaviors and demands of their potential users.
In this article we give you a brief review of the evolution of social networks.
Growth of social networks over time
Although the term “social network” has its origin in the 2000s, the truth is that the first social platform emerged in 1997. It was called Six Degrees, and it was active until 2001. Its functions were basic, it offered the possibility to create user and community profiles among friends.
In 2002 Friendster and LinkedIn (business network) emerged, the following year Hi5 and MySpace were born. All very popular and with their own community, they offered different functions, but the same social space. Facebook was born in 2004, without thinking that by 2018 it would become the most widely used social network worldwide.
After Facebook, other social networks were born that we also see today, that is, YouTube (2005) Twitter (2006), Tumblr (2007), Pinterest (2009) Instagram (2010) and Snapchat (2011). All platforms for social interaction with a specific target audience, but that are related at a certain point.
Social networks, commercial platforms
One of the first leaps that social networks made is that they went from being social spaces, to also allow the inclusion of business activities on their platforms. Brands knew that these were the communication channels where their users spent the most time, so they began to increase their presence in them.
Given the success of social networks, its creators began to integrate new functions and greater segmentation according to their theme.
What can we see in current social networks?
Although at the beginning social networks were constituted only as a space to exchange messages, images and music, currently their functions are broader. Now they allow you to make video calls, voice calls, live streaming, sections to find videos and series, and much more.
People’s need for interaction and communication will hardly allow social networks to disappear. Perhaps some of these social platforms will no longer exist in subsequent years, but without a doubt, new platforms will emerge every day seeking the boom as a social network.
