Whats hot in social networking
There has never been a better time to stay in the know about the latest and greatest social networks. Ever since MySpace launched more than 12 years ago, social networks have played an increasingly important role in our daily lives. But a lot has changed in the last decade, and social networking has evolved dramatically.
Lets take a look at the hottest new social networking sites.
Most likely the No. 1 site used by teens and young adults is Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service acquired by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion. In fact, when Facebook bought the service three years ago, many thought Facebooks decision to pay a billion dollars for an app was insane now Instagram has a staggering 300 million-plus users and is worth somewhere upward of $35 billion.
Instagram lets users simply and efficiently share their photos in an easy-to-navigate stream.
Twitter, founded in 2006, is still an immensely popular network. It has about half a billion users, but in recent months its popularity has slightly declined. Twitter is more popular with high schoolers than college students, but it has seen a surge in adult usage too. The networks emphasis on simplicity is perhaps its best quality: Users can only post 140 characters, which keeps content brief.
Tumblr, the popular microblogging service founded by high school dropout David Karp, is currently the fastest growing social platform. Tumblr varies in use some use its blog features to write and share content to the world while others use it to host images, videos, and more. Tumblr was acquired in 2013 by Yahoo! for $1 billion and has since grown rapidly. Teens, young adults, startups and large companies alike use Tumblr as a way to share whats on their mind.
Snapchat, the startup company worth an astounding $10 billion (seems like all of these services are multibillion dollar products) is perhaps the most popular app next to Instagram. While Instagram, Twitter and Facebook promote the idea of a public profile, Snapchat encourages one-to-one communication. The service lets users send disappearing images/videos that can be viewed for a maximum of 10 seconds until they disappear into cyberspace. Its widely used to share moments and funny faces.
Then theres the various messaging services such as WhatsApp, Line and Kik.
WhatsApp, while not as popular in the United States as in other countries, is a messaging platform that lets people around the world text for free. Its massive 700 million active user base caught the attention of Facebook, which acquired the messaging giant last year for $21 billion. Line and Kik also remain popular texting apps and support one-on-one conversations or group messages. These apps are free to use but offer some services for a fee.
Vine, too, is another popular network. Often dubbed the Instagram for video, Vine launched as a hit with teens. Over the past year, though, its popularity has declined. A subsidiary of Twitter, Vine is not as large as its parent company and hasnt seen adoption as strong as Instagram. However, the service has a decent user base and is an excellent place to explore short, fun clips.
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Whats hot in social networking