●SNSの歴史（アメリカ遍）Six Degrees.com

SNSの歴史をさかのぼるとSixDegrees.comという会社にぶち当たる。フレンドスターは2002年にスタートしたのでそのずっと前の1997年からになる。今ではサイトも閉鎖されてしまっているので情報だけ調べてみた。従業員１００名で登録ユーザーは１００万人もいたようだ。

実はSNSの技術まわりの特許も取得していた会社でYouthStream Media Networks にその後買い取られていたと思う。フレンドスターは米国で最初のSNSでない事は事実らしい。

http://www.answers.com/topic/sixdegrees-com

SixDegrees.com

SixDegrees.com was the original social network service website that lasted from 1997 to 2001. It was named after the six degrees of separation concept and allowed users to list friends, family members and acquaintances both on the site and externally; external contacts were invited to join the site. Users could send messages and post bulletin board items to people in their first, second, and third degrees, and see their connection to any other user on the site. With its concept of transferring real-world connections online, SixDegrees anticipated later, and more successful, social networking sites such as Friendster, LinkedIn, MySpace and FaceBook.

People who confirmed a relationship with an existing user but did not go on to register with the site continued to receive occasional email updates and solicitations; probably for this reason, SixDegrees acquired a reputation as a spammer.

MacroView (later renamed to SixDegrees), the company that developed the site, was founded by CEO Andrew Weinreich and was based in New York City. At its height, SixDegrees had around 100 employees, and the site had around 1,000,000 fully-registered members. The site was bought by YouthStream Media Networks in 2000 for US$125 million.