Friendster was a social network based in Mountain View, California, founded by Jonathan Abrams and launched in March 2003. Later, the company became a social gaming site based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Before Friendster was redesigned, the service allowed users to contact other members, maintain those contacts, and share online content and media with those contacts. The website was also used for dating and discovering new events, bands and hobbies. Users could share videos, photos, messages, and comments with other members via profiles and networks. It is considered one of the original social networks.
Myspace is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, the site was the first social network to reach a global audience and had a significant influence on technology, pop culture and music. The site played a critical role in the early growth of companies like YouTube and created a developer platform that launched the successes of Zynga, RockYou and Photobucket, among others. From 2005 to 2009, Myspace was the largest social networking site in the world.
BuzzNet is a photo, journal, and video-sharing social media network that is currently owned by Hive Media. The network was owned by SpinMedia from its inception until September 2016, when it was sold to Hive Media.
CouchSurfing is a hospitality exchange service by which users can request free short-term homestays or interact with other people who are interested in travel. It is accessible via a website and mobile app. It uses a subscription business model, and while hosts are not allowed to charge for lodging, members in some countries must pay a fee to access the platform.
Meebo was an instant messaging and social networking service provider. It was founded in September 2005 by Sandy Jen, Seth Sternberg, and Elaine Wherry, and was based in Mountain View, California. Initially the company offered a web-based instant messenger service, extending its offer in more general online chat and even social networking directions. In June 2012, Google acquired Meebo to merge the company's staff with the Google+ developers team.
Flixster was an American social-networking movie website for discovering new movies, learning about movies, and meeting others with similar tastes in movies, currently owned by parent company Fandango. The formerly independent site, allows users to view movie trailers as well as learn about new and upcoming movies at the box office. It was originally based in San Francisco, California and was founded by Joe Greenstein and Saran Chari on January 20, 2006. It was also the former parent company of Rotten Tomatoes from January 2010 to February 17, 2016. On February 17, 2016, Flixster, including Rotten Tomatoes, was acquired by Fandango.
The online service imeem was a social media website where users interacted with each other by streaming, uploading and sharing music and music videos. It operated from 2003 until 2009 when it was shut down after being acquired by MySpace.
Kongregate is an American web gaming portal and video game publisher. Its website features over 124,000 online games and 30+ mobile games available to the public. The company also publishes games for PC, mobile, and home consoles. It was purchased by GameStop Corporation in 2010 before being acquired by Modern Times Group MT AB in 2017.
Keek was a free online social networking service that allowed its users to upload video status updates, which were called "keeks". Users could post keeks to the Keek website using a webcam or via the Keek mobile apps for iPhone, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, or Android. Users could also reply back with text or video comments, known as "keekbacks", and share content to other major social media networks. There was also an embed option so users could embed their keeks into a blog or website.
Tagged is a social discovery website based in San Francisco, California, founded in 2004. It allows members to browse the profiles of any other members, and share tags and virtual gifts. Tagged claims it has 300 million members as of 2014. As of September 2011, Quantcast estimates Tagged monthly unique users at 5.9 million in the United States, and 18.6 million globally. Michael Arrington wrote in April 2011 that Tagged is most notable for the ability to grow profitably during the era of Facebook.
Playphone is a mobile gaming platform founded in 2003 headquartered in San Jose, California that provides direct-to-consumer mobile content distribution. It is funded by Menlo Ventures, Cardinal Venture Capital, and Coral Capital Management, and is a subsidiary of GungHo Online Entertainment.
The Facebook Platform is the set of services, tools, and products provided by the social networking service Facebook for third-party developers to create their own applications and services that access data in Facebook.
qeep is a social network for mobile phones. A license-free application, qeep was first released in beta in 2006. Initially meant for Java mobile owners only, in 2011 the mobile social network launched an Android version. As of fall 2015 there is also a client for the iPhone available.
Where, Inc. was a location-based media company in North America. Their main products were the WHERE consumer application and WHERE Ads, a hyper-local ad network that connected merchants with local audiences. PayPal announced its acquisition of Where, Inc. in 2011 for $135 million.
Ngmoco, LLC was an American-based publisher of video games for the iOS and Android platforms, and a subsidiary of DeNA Co., Ltd. The company was founded by former Electronic Arts executive Neil Young in July 2008. Since its founding, ngmoco has had more than seven million combined game installs. Venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Norwest Venture Partners, among others, have financed the company with a combined total of US$40.6 million. The company is most well known for their publishing of the Rolando game series and Eliminate Pro.
Skype Qik was a video messaging service by Skype. It was created by the company, Skype Technologies, who acquired Qik. The service, offered for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices, allowed users to exchange video messages between individuals or within a group.
MegaZebra is a game development company located in Munich, Germany. The company develops free-to-play games for social networks like Facebook and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. As of July 2018, the company employs 55 people.
Bunchball provides a cloud-based software as a service gamification product intended to help companies improve customer loyalty and online engagement using game mechanics. Bunchball was founded by Rajat Paharia in 2005 and has raised $17.5 million in funding.
ParkWhiz is an e-parking service that allows users to book parking spaces before reaching their destinations. ParkWhiz headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois.
Kumu is a Filipino video sharing and e-commerce social networking service owned and developed by Kumumedia Technologies, Inc. The social media platform is used to livestream curated programs created by app users and partner brands and as an e-commerce platform for app users and partner brands who want to sell their merchandise online. It was founded in 2017 and launched on Android and iOS devices in February 2018. Kumu caters mainly to the Philippine market and the Filipino diaspora. In October 2020, the app topped the download charts of both the Apple App Store and Google Play in the free apps category. The app aims to become a "super app" that combines the functionalities of other apps like YouTube, TikTok, Shopee, Instagram and Facebook Messenger into one. Kumu is considering adding offline events to its platform, such as fan meetings with popular livestreamers and a convention inspired by Comic-Con called Kumu-Con, and expand beyond livestreaming to e-commerce and payments.
3.27 million monthly active users (September 8, 2015)