WI: Facebook in 1994

Wallet

Banned
What if the world largest social media website, Facebook, was started 10 years earlier in 1994 instead of 2004?

It doesn't have to be made by the same people. But what if a massive social network that allows people to post messages, share stories, photos, videos, and everything Facebook does during the 90s?

I think this would probably ruin Bill Clinton's presidency with republicans using this "Facebook" to spread lies and fake news. Al Gore might have an advantage in 2000 because young people would be more politically active.
 

RousseauX

Donor
What if the world largest social media website, Facebook, was started 10 years earlier in 1994 instead of 2004?

It doesn't have to be made by the same people. But what if a massive social network that allows people to post messages, share stories, photos, videos, and everything Facebook does during the 90s?

I think this would probably ruin Bill Clinton's presidency with republicans using this "Facebook" to spread lies and fake news. Al Gore might have an advantage in 2000 because young people would be more politically active.
the problem is that rate of internet usage and demographics of internet usage in 1994 doesn't match what is needed for social media so succeed

I mean 1994 was dial-up modem and people who used the internet for entertainment are basically specific sets of people whose technical knowledge are way above the mean, the fact that 56k internet was the norm alone means shit like photo sharing is a none-starter because of the bandwidth required

FB went viral in 2006 or so because it caught on with college freshmen and that was because high speed internet's proliferation is wide enough for it to be used, it became politically influential around 2008 because of college kids and eventually matured into an even more potent political tool as middle-aged women signed up to it.

One of the curious things about the .com bubble is that half the companies had the same idea as the tech giants nowadays, just 10 years too early
 

Wallet

Banned
the problem is that rate of internet usage and demographics of internet usage in 1994 doesn't match what is needed for social media so succeed

I mean 1994 was dial-up modem and people who used the internet for entertainment are basically specific sets of people whose technical knowledge are way above the main

FB went viral in 2006 or so because it caught on with college freshmen and that was because high speed internet's proliferation is wide enough for it to be used, it became politically influential around 2008 because of college kids and eventually matured into an even more potent political tool as middle-aged women signed up to it.

One of the curious things about the .com bubble is that half the companies had the same idea as the tech giants nowadays, just 10 years too early
I was thinking how the population of internet users in 1994 probably wasn't big or interested enough.

Can you go into more detail about ideas that came too early?
 
The idea of a platform dedicated to sharing photos and videos thriving in a world of 28k modems just caused my mind to boggle...
 
What if the world largest social media website, Facebook, was started 10 years earlier in 1994 instead of 2004?

It doesn't have to be made by the same people. But what if a massive social network that allows people to post messages, share stories, photos, videos, and everything Facebook does during the 90s?

I think this would probably ruin Bill Clinton's presidency with republicans using this "Facebook" to spread lies and fake news. Al Gore might have an advantage in 2000 because young people would be more politically active.
It's called Compuserve bro
 
I watched e-Dreams in high school, and my impression of Kozmo was that it's pretty much super-Amazon Prime in terms of shipping, but there was just no way around the bloated shipping costs for their startup, and they eventually ran out of investment funds.

Broadcast.com and Mark Cuban selling at the absolute right time is why he owns the Mavericks. But yeah, it was the idea that we could broadcast live sports over the internet, which seemed like a cash-cow in 1999, and impossible by 2002.

Man, now I want to go watch Office Space.
 
Hmmm...Good date, I have to say. That's just after the beginning of the Eternal September when Usenet/Internet usage in general increased dramatically thanks to America Online, then the nation's largest provider, finally offering it. That said...Yeah, I can't see Facebook succeeding in a dial-up world, at least, not in the form we know it. It might still exist, but it'd probably have no photo or video functionality and, without that, is it really anything but a glorified chat service?
 

Devvy

Donor
But what if a massive social network that allows people to post messages, share stories, photos, videos, and everything Facebook does during the 90s.

The internet speed of 28.8 or 56.6 would not be anywhere near sufficient for this. You'd be waiting literally minutes for the Facebook home wall to load, let alone anything else in detail. Forget videos - my 56.6 back in the day gave me 1mb per 5 minutes very roughly. Also, social media thrives on posting stuff as it happens and in the moment - not making a mental note of it to draft on notepad and then upload later so you don't hog the phone line for too long. The rest of my family needs to use the line too, to talk to people!

Also, without digital cameras, how are photographs going to get on the computer in the first place to put online?
 
Hmmm...Good date, I have to say. That's just after the beginning of the Eternal September when Usenet/Internet usage in general increased dramatically thanks to America Online, then the nation's largest provider, finally offering it. That said...Yeah, I can't see Facebook succeeding in a dial-up world, at least, not in the form we know it. It might still exist, but it'd probably have no photo or video functionality and, without that, is it really anything but a glorified chat service?
Given the technology available and rates of internet usage at the time, 1994-era Facebook would be more like Usenet than the social media site we know now
 
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