Animated bar chart of the most popular social media networks from 2003 – 2018

Callum Booth of TNW created this animated bar chart showing the rise and fall of different social media networks over the last 16 years.

Firstly, I had no idea how old LinkedIn is – that damn network has been around since the beginning. We also talk a lot about MySpace's fall from grace, but the creators of Friendster must be kicking themselves at losing such a big market share.

I was also surprised that Google Buzz (remember that?) was the third most popular social network for a year or two – what a world.

That's just scratching the surface though, I've watched that social media bar chart race multiple times and always find another interesting nugget. One thing's for certain, judging by how many times the top spot changed hands over the past 16 years, none of the social media giants should be resting on their laurels. Really, anything can happen.