Monday 24 October 2016

Long Island Advertising Agencies: What Was Six Degrees?

By Robert Sutter


Technology is interesting in the sense that every story has a beginning. Social media is no different, especially when discussing the various platforms that have launched and achieved popularity over the years. What you may not know about - and Long Island advertising agencies can tell you all about it - is what's known as the inaugural social media network. Six Degrees is the name and here are a few things that you should know about it.

Six Degrees is not a name that everyone knows, but what should be known is that it's essentially the first-ever social media site. It launched during 1997 - a time when the Internet was just starting to come into its own - and even predated the likes of MySpace. What made Six Degrees stand out was its ability for users to create their own lists, which would include family members, friends, co-workers, and the like. Back then, this feature mattered. Your local fishbat Long Island advertising agency will tell you, though, that social media has grown since then.

Six Degrees wasn't without its success, though, as companies like fishbat can attest. In fact, it gained a few million users during its time, which was phenomenal given the fact that not everyone had immediate Internet access back then. However, its success was limited due to various factors, spam accounts being one of the more striking examples. To say that this was detrimental for Six Degrees would be an understatement.

In 1999, Six Degrees was sold to YouthStream Media Networks for a total of $125 million; the social media site folded two years later. It's unfortunate that Six Degrees became defunct, but it made sense why it occurred. The site simply was not engaging enough for users, which wasn't exactly helped by the primitive nature of the Internet back then. If it arose today, Six Degrees might have stood a chance. Back then, though, it was too ambitious for its own good.

Six Degrees is an interesting piece of history, to say the least, and hopefully these details have expanded your mind on the subject matter. While it's not exactly impressive by today's standards, an argument can be made that current sites owe something to it. After all, it seemed to spark an interest in social media in general, which allowed other companies to throw their hats into the ring. If nothing else, Six Degrees is a discussion-worthy topic to this day.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment