How the Top Social Networks got started

It might be unknown to many but the majority of all social networks were started by a spamming of some sorts.


link to photo

  • MySpace used their ResponseBase email marketing list of 100 million+ people to send for first users.
  • Facebook spammed all the Harvard email lists to get the first 2,000 users in a day.
  • Hi5 used their previous dating site to send a considerable amount of traffic to
  • Bebo used their original site BirthdayAlarm.com to have a huge user base to start with.
  • Friendster and Orkut, I think started naturally and virally through a very limited invite system.

Take aways:
1- What can you do to get a relevant email list through non-illegal ways? Can you create a light weight system to garner targeted users? Consider having a landing-page and buying ads on Google…
2- Things don’t happen by magic. You have to light a match to start a fire.

Welcome to Noah Kagan's Okdork! I am really glad you found me. Don't go just yet. If you're killing time at work, enjoy marketing, online communities and other business things; then you are at the right place.

You should check out my Okdork Virgin Guide to get started.

If you like what you read why don't you subscribe to RSS Feed?

Thanks again for dropping by and I hope to see you soon! - Noah

Want More? Get new articles via email:

people read Okdork everyday!

10 Responses to “How the Top Social Networks got started”

  • Mike Michalowicz
    May 21st, 2008
    2:08 pm

    Noah,

    Where is a good place to get lists. Good lists?

    - Mike

  • Noah Everett
    May 21st, 2008
    2:42 pm

    Interesting, I didn’t know that.

  • J. Bryan Scott
    May 21st, 2008
    2:58 pm

    I’d heard that before about Facebook, but I never heard the history on these other social networks.

    High value post here - I like it when I don’t have to read much to learn a lot.

  • Noah Kagan
    May 21st, 2008
    7:23 pm

    mike,

    good question. you can buy lists but sending unsolicited email is spam. need to figure out ways that people willingly give you that email address or other forms of communication. i will go over how i did it at mint.com in a week or so.

  • Xango
    May 21st, 2008
    9:20 pm

    great post! I created a social networking site recently and it is always cool to hear from others.

  • Ross Hill
    May 21st, 2008
    10:44 pm

    Looking forward to the Mint strategy!

  • Vinnie
    May 22nd, 2008
    7:46 am

    and it doesn’t always have to be an email list for ’social software’:

    twitter.com - i think they’re big start was sxsw 2006, core early adopter community
    youtube.com - embeddable widgets on myspace
    wordpress.com - open sourcing their software
    blogger.com - that i don’t know, just best option when the idea was coming into play?

  • Nicole Price
    May 24th, 2008
    4:11 am

    Hey i never thought of that but you have to be right about that, because how else would you jump start a social networking site!

  • John Walters
    June 1st, 2008
    5:59 am

    Whether you class it as spamming or not, what the sites did worked! They managed to get a large user base in an incredibly short space of time. A lot of sites must have grown in the same way, like Vinnie said. Social networks weren’t the first and won’t be the last that use ’spammy’ techniques to get well known.

    John

  • Eva White
    June 16th, 2008
    12:41 am

    Wow that’s interesting information. I guess these guys knew where the straw was to light the match

Leave a Reply




Most Popular Posts...EVER!

    will brb.

Noah.licio.us

October's Top Commenters