Start-Ups

Tech history in photos: Social media founders

By // June 6, 2014, 5:40 AM PST // connerforrest

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  • Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

    Social media is a relatively new phenomenon, but it shapes the daily lives of many internet users. Here are the people behind some of the most important social media sites.

    Mark Zukerberg is the CEO and one of the original co-founders of Facebook. Facebook was originally only available to university students, but once it opened up to the general public it became the most popular social network in the world.

    Image: James Martin/CNET

  • Jack Dorsey, Twitter

    Jack Dorsey is the co-creator and co-founder of Twitter. Twitter was one of the first "microblogging" services, and it taught the world to think in 140 characters or less.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Joi Ito

  • Ben Silbermann, Pinterest

    Ben Silbermann is the co-founder and CEO of Pinterest. Before starting Pinterest, Silbermann worked in the sales division at Google.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Anya

  • Kevin Systrom, Instagram

    Kevin Systrom co-founded Instagram with with Mike Krieger in 2010. Instagram quickly became the most popular mobile photo sharing app and was eventually purchased by Facebook for $1 billion in 2012.

    Image: Stephen Shankland/CNET

  • Tom Anderson, Myspace

    In 2003 Tom Anderson co-founded Myspace with Chris DeWolfe. Anderson was largely known as the face of Myspace, because once you created an account he automatically became your first friend on the social network.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Robert Scoble

  • Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn

    Reid Hoffman is a successful venture capital investor and the founder of the business social networking site LinkedIn. Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn in 2002 and it grew to over $1 billion in revenue.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Joi Ito

  • David Karp, Tumblr

    David Karp is the founder and CEO of the social blogging site Tumblr. Karp founded the site in 2007. In 2013, Tumblr was purchased by Yahoo for more than $1 billion.

    Image: Shara Tibken/CNET

  • Chad Hurley, YouTube

    In early 2005, Chad Hurley helped launch YouTube alongside Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. YouTube is, perhaps, the best-known social video sharing site and was purchased by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Joi

  • Alexis Ohanian, Reddit

    Alexis Ohanian co-founded Reddit with Steve Huffman in early 2005. Reddit is a combination of social networking and news, and the site bills itself as "the front page of the internet."

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Alec Perkins

  • Jonathan Abrams, Friendster

    Jonathan Abrams founded Friendster in 2002, and it became the first widely used social networking platform. The site eventually lost out to Myspace and Facebook and in 2011, it rebranded as a social gaming site.

    Image: Nuzzel, Inc.

  • Brad Fitzpatrick, LiveJournal

    Brad Fitzpatrick launched LiveJournal in 1999. LiveJournal is a social networking service and community where users maintain an online journal that is accessible by their peers. The site is considered one of the foundational sites for modern blogging.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Brad Fitzpatrick

  • Justin Timberlake (honorable mention)

    Justin Timberlake starred in the movie The Social Network, and he bought a share of Myspace in 2011… #lol

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Jtstpaul

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

Social media is a relatively new phenomenon, but it shapes the daily lives of many internet users. Here are the people behind some of the most important social media sites.

Mark Zukerberg is the CEO and one of the original co-founders of Facebook. Facebook was originally only available to university students, but once it opened up to the general public it became the most popular social network in the world.

Image: James Martin/CNET

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About Conner Forrest

Conner Forrest is a Senior Editor for TechRepublic. He covers enterprise technology and is interested in the convergence of tech and culture.