4 ms·
Facebook (launch Feb 2004) was founded after Myspace (launch Aug 2003), which was founded after Friendster (2002). So there was certainly competition. Was it '
by ghufran_syed 11y ago
Facebook (launch Feb 2004) was founded after Myspace (launch Aug 2003), which was founded after Friendster (2002). So there was certainly competition.
Was it 'worthy competition'? Hard to say without hindsight bias (only the winners 10 years later were 'worthy'), but I doubt Mark Zuckerberg or the Google founders felt there was no worthy competition. It seems fairly clear to me that Facebook (and Google) succeeded because they made better decisions (on average) at a gazillion small decision points, not because they had some great idea that no-one else had thought of.
- scholia 11y agoOddly enough, Facebook was founded at almost exactly the same time as a fast-growing social networking site backed by a famous company with global reach. That was Google's Orkut.
- aliakhtar 11y agoI remember seeing a talk by Zuckerberg (or another early Facebook person) where they talked about clones of Facebook, and how they were racing to win over different colleges / universities before other social networks did.
- cableshaft 11y agoI remember one particular college-targeted social media site (besides Facebook) at the time called CollegeClub. Met a couple women through that. It didn't have anywhere near the reach that Facebook did a couple years later, though.