This is an update to the original video published in 2020. I've included more data for Chinese social media platforms and included some that I left out such as YouTube and Telegram, since they're no longer just basic apps for video and messaging. In this data visualization video I look at the most popular social media networks based on active accounts during that time.

These stats come from Wikipedia, Statista, archive.org and from Google Books searches. I did not include those platforms that did not report stats. Some of the data includes approximate numbers as the data available skipped years.

In the video I included screenshots of certain platforms from the list as they looked during that particular year. The platform thumbnails:

1997 - Bolt
Founded as a community for teens

1998 - Classmates
Biggest collection of yearbooks online

1999 - Open Diary
Introduced commenting and privacy settings

2000 - theGlobe
Chatrooms and online clubs

2001 - PlanetAll
Bought and killed by Amazon

2002 - LiveJournal
Still Popular in Russia for Microblogging

2003 - MySpace
First global social network

2004 - Orkut
From Google, became popular in Brazil

2005 - Friendster
Created before MySpace, Hi5 and Facebook

2006 - QQ
Messaging and web portal from China

2007 - Hi5
Social media with focus on dating

2008 - VKontakte
Russian clone of Facebook

2009 - Facebook
Infamous update of news feed

2010 - Tagged
Originally a social network for teens

2011 - Tumblr
Microblogging and social network

2012 - QZone
Social network from China

2013 - OK.ru
Russian social network

2014 - Reddit
Content discovery and discussion

2015 - Vine
Short looping video clips

2016 - Snapchat
Video messaging with goofy filters

2017 - WeChat
Reaches 1 million mini apps

2018 - Whatsapp
Implemented stories

2019 - Facebook
Testing redesign

2020 - TikTok
Dance challenges

2021 - Messenger
Meta's original messaging app

2022 - YouTube
Added shorts and stories

Thank you for watching. Let me know which platforms have been your favorite?