Hyves

Last updated
Hyves
Hyves logo.png
Type of site
 Social networking website
Available in Dutch, English
Owner Telegraaf Media Groep
Created by Raymond Spanjar (Founder)
Koen Kam (Co-founder)
Floris Rost van Tonningen (Co-founder)
Nine Ludwig (Editor-in-chief)
URLwww.hyves.nl
Registrationclosed
LaunchedOctober 10, 2004
Current statusDefunct
Hyves headquarter in 2010 Hyves HQ.jpg
Hyves headquarter in 2010

Hyves was a social networking site in the Netherlands with mainly Dutch visitors and members, where it competed with sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Hyves was founded in 2004 by Raymond Spanjar and Floris Rost van Tonningen. [1] The service was available in both Dutch and English. [2]

Contents

In May 2010 Hyves had more than 10.3 million accounts. These correspond to two thirds of the size of the Dutch population (which stood at over 16 million in 2010), however this included multiple accounts per person and inactive accounts. The number of accounts had grown by over two million as compared to 1.5 years earlier. [3] Hyves could be used free of charge, but there was an option for a paid Premium Membership (called "Gold Membership"). Gold members had access to some extra features, such as the ability to use a wider variety of smilies in their messages and more uploading space for pictures. The creators have said that the basic of a Hyves account will always be free.[ citation needed ]

In 2013, the social network was officially discontinued, due to the huge decrease in accounts due to the growing popularity of other social networks like Facebook and Twitter in the Netherlands. The site continued as Hyves Games, where members could use their Hyves accounts to play social games.

History

Hyves membership numbers from inception through 2009. Growth of the Hyves network.png
Hyves membership numbers from inception through 2009.

Hyves started in September 2004. The name Hyves was chosen because the desired domain name hives.nl was already taken. [4] The name referred to beehives and the fact that social networks are built the same way.

In May 2006 it became public that the Dutch police was using Hyves as a tool to investigate possible suspects. [5] Only information that is uploaded by suspects is being checked.

On December 13, 2007 Hyves was awarded with the title of "most popular site of the year".[ by whom? ]

In April 2008, Dutch media tycoon Joop van den Ende took a large interest in Hyves. [6] The intention was to expand abroad and provide mobile services.[ who? ]

Hyves changed its design in July of '09. The site got a new look and feel, described as being more docile and synoptic. The profile picture format was also changed into a standard square shape. [7]

In her Christmas speech of 2009, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands expressed negative views about online social networks. In response, the founder of Hyves offered her a free account/profile, so that she could experience Hyves herself. [1]

In 2010, it became clear that the fast growth of Hyves was slowing down due to growth of Twitter and Facebook. Therefore, Hyves announced extra measures to leave the competition further behind. These measures were successful, because Hyves welcomed its 10 millionth user in April 2010. Despite the perception that Hyves mostly had young members, the target group ages faster than it rejuvenates. [8] The average age of a member at Hyves is 30 years old. [9] Also, in that same month, Hyves announced "Hyves Payments" and "Hyves Games", which allows users to play games and pay friends through the social network.

Age-Gender distribution comparison between Hyves and the general Dutch population. Age-Gender distributions, Hyves and general Dutch population.png
Age-Gender distribution comparison between Hyves and the general Dutch population.

Although Facebook was rapidly growing in the Netherlands, in 2010 Hyves was still the most popular social network with 10.6 million users and a 68% penetration. Hyves was sold to the Telegraaf Media Groep in November that same year. [10] [11]

In September 2011, Facebook received more unique visitors than Hyves since its creation. [12] In the same year, Hyves redirected their focus from a pure social network platform to a content platform by adding a news section, sports results and radio channels. [13]

In 2013, the Telegraaf Media Group announced to reform Hyves from a social network platform to an exclusive gaming platform. All users had the ability to download their social profile. On December 1, 2013 all the not downloaded accounts were removed.

Elections on Hyves

In February 2006, Wouter Bos was the first Dutch politician with a Hyves account and created a trend. The Prime Minister at that time, Jan Peter Balkenende, also saw the potential to communicate with his target audience through social media. He created an account in 2006. [14] [15] During the Dutch elections of 2010, Hyves was used in a broad range of ways. Every leader of every political party had an account on Hyves, and the world's first debate between political leaders on a social network was organised and hosted by Hyves. [16]

Features

User profiles can be created without knowledge of HTML. Profiles can be built by filling in questionnaires and uploading content.[ citation needed ]

Privacy

Hyves' users had the option to make their profiles only available (to a degree chosen by the user) to friends or friends of friends (the so-called ‘connections’). Users could also protect their messages by making them visible only to friends or connections.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Peter Balkenende</span> 49th Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 2002 to 2010

Jan Pieter "Jan Peter" Balkenende Jr. is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and jurist who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 to 14 October 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wouter Bos</span> Dutch politician

Wouter Jacob Bos (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋʌutər ˈbɔs]; is a retired Dutch politician of the Labour Party and businessman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2003 Dutch general election</span> Election of the members of the House of Representatives

General elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 January 2003.

<i>Bassie & Adriaan</i> Dutch circus duo

Bassie & Adriaan was a television programme series focusing on the adventures and lives of a circus duo consisting of clown Bassie and acrobat Adriaan, played by real-life circus duo Bas and Aad van Toor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2006 Dutch general election</span> Election of the members of the House of Representatives

General elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 November 2006 following the fall of the Second Balkenende cabinet. The elections proved relatively successful for the governing Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) which remained the largest party with 41 seats, a loss of only three seats. The largest increase in seats was for the Socialist Party (SP), which went from nine to 25 seats. The main opposition party, the social-democratic Labour Party (PvdA) lost nine of its 42 seats, while the right-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the progressive liberal Democrats 66 lost a considerable portion of their seats, six of 28 and three of six, respectively. New parties, such as the right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) of former VVD MP Geert Wilders and the animal rights party Party for the Animals (PvdD) were also successful, with the PVV winning nine seats and the PvdD winning two, thereby becoming the first animal rights group to enter a European parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rita Verdonk</span> Dutch politician

Maria Cornelia Frederika "Rita" Verdonk is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and later founder of the Proud of the Netherlands (Trots) party and businesswoman.

<i>RTL Boulevard</i> Dutch television show

RTL Boulevard is a daily television programme on the Dutch TV channel RTL 4. It was set up as a television equivalent of a tabloid, with a lot of airy subjects, news items and gossip about the stars, fashion and criminality. The programme is renowned for its sarcastic and cynical tone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Rutte</span> 50th Prime Minister of the Netherlands

Mark Rutte is a Dutch politician who has served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 2010 and Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) since 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BNN (Dutch broadcaster)</span> Former Dutch public broadcaster

BNN or Bart's Neverending Network was a Dutch public broadcasting association supported by Netherlands Public Broadcasting. BNN was founded in 1997 by Bart de Graaff, Gerard Timmer and Frank Timmer and targeted teenagers and young adults. It produced entertainment and information television programming, radio programming, and feature films. Some of BNN's programming dealt with controversial subject matter, including most famously, a hoax reality special made to help raise awareness of the shortage of organ donors in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmed Aboutaleb</span> Dutch politician

Ahmed Aboutaleb is a Dutch politician of Moroccan origin, he is of the Labour Party (PvdA) and a journalist. He has been the Mayor of Rotterdam since 5 January 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2006–2007 Dutch cabinet formation</span>

Following the 2006 Dutch general election, held on November 22, a process of cabinet formation started, involving negotiations about which coalition partners to form a common programme of policy and to divide the posts in cabinet. On February 22, 2007 it resulted in the formation of the Fourth Balkenende cabinet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fourth Balkenende cabinet</span> Cabinet of the Netherlands

The fourth Balkenende cabinet was the executive branch of the Government of the Netherlands from 22 February 2007 until 14 October 2010. The cabinet was formed by the Christian-democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and Christian Union (CU) and the social-democratic Labour Party (PvdA) after the election of 2006. The cabinet was a centrist grand coalition and had a slim majority in the House of Representatives with Christian Democratic Leader Jan Peter Balkenende serving as prime minister. Labour Leader Wouter Bos served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance while Social Christian Leader André Rouvoet served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister without Portfolio for Health, Welfare and Sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Kees de Jager</span> Dutch politician

Jan Cornelis "Jan Kees" de Jager is a former Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and businessman. He was State Secretary for Finance between 2007 and 2010 and later Minister for Finance between 2010 and 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bebo</span> American social networking website

Bebo was an American social networking website that originally operated from 2005 until its bankruptcy in 2013 and relaunched in February 2021. The site relaunched several times after its bankruptcy with a number of short-lived offerings, including instant messaging and video streaming, until its acquisition by Amazon in July 2019 when it was shut down. It was announced in January 2021 that it would be returning as a new social media site the month after. By May 2022, it had been once again shutdown, without having ever left beta testing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talpa Network</span> Dutch media conglomerate

Talpa Network is a Dutch media conglomerate created by John de Mol Jr. in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project X Haren</span>

Project X Haren was an event that started out as a public invitation to a birthday party by a girl on Facebook, but ended up as a gathering of thousands of youths causing riots on 21 September 2012 in the town of Haren, Groningen, Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Common Linnets</span> Dutch band

The Common Linnets are a Dutch band that was formed in 2013. The band originally consisted of friends Ilse DeLange and Waylon. DeLange has stated that the group is a platform for Dutch artists to make country, Americana, and bluegrass music, and that the members will be changing. In May 2014, Waylon left the group and was replaced by American country singer Jake Etheridge.

Dyme is a Dutch fintech start-up and subscription management app that allows users to cancel and renegotiate their recurring costs. In 2019, Dyme was the first independent Dutch company to receive a PSD2 licence from the Netherlands' central bank (DNB). Wired described Dyme as one of the ‘hottest start-ups in Europe’ in 2021. It is reported the company had 350,000 registered users in the Netherlands and Great Britain in 2021.

References

  1. 1 2 van Slooten, Johan (2010). "The first decade: How internet changed the way we live" . Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Corten, Rense (April 16, 2012). "Composition and Structure of a Large Online Social Network in the Netherlands". PLOS ONE. 7 (4): e34760. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...734760C. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0034760 . PMC   3327718 . PMID   22523557.
  3. ↑ (in Dutch) Hyves.nl
  4. ↑ "Raymond Spanjar van Hyves in BusinessWeek". 925.nl (in Dutch). 12 January 2009. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
  5. ↑ "Hyves.nl ook populair bij politie". Nu.nl (in Dutch). 18 May 2006.
  6. ↑ "Joop Van den Ende investeert miljoenen in Hyves". Marketingfacts (in Dutch). 4 April 2008.
  7. ↑ "Hyves lanceert nieuw design". Techzine (in Dutch). 2 July 2009.
  8. ↑ "Hyves veroudert sneller dan het verjongt". Hyped.nl (in Dutch). 20 September 2009. Archived from the original on 24 September 2010.
  9. ↑ "De gemiddelde Hyver is 30 jaar". Hyves.nl (in Dutch). 30 June 2010.
  10. ↑ Dutch social network Hyves sold to media group, as European-based networks feel the Facebook heat, TechCrunch . 1 November 2010.
  11. ↑ Dutch Social Site Keeps Facebook At Bay — For Now, WSJ Blogs . 1 November 2010.
  12. ↑ Facebook populairder dan Hyves
  13. ↑ Hyves: Nu & Straks
  14. ↑ "Politici ontdekken Hyves: Over Wouter Bos en zijn nieuwe mediagebruik". denieuwereporter.nl (in Dutch). 5 April 2010.
  15. ↑ "Jan Peter Balkenende nu ook op Hyves". Marketingfacts.nl (in Dutch). 10 May 2006.
  16. ↑ "Politici kruisen degens digitaal op Hyves". Telegraaf.nl (in Dutch). 27 May 2010.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.