By Onoir O’ Brien
SixDegrees Overview
SixDegrees.com was founded in New York City in 1996 by Andrew Weinreich, a practicing attorney. Formerly known as MacroView, Weinreich rebranded and the Social Network Site became known as Sixdegrees.com in 1997, it was the first form of social networking sites to be widely used, followed by more successful social networking sites based on the “social-circles network model” such as MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook. SixDegrees had about 100 employees at its height, and the site had approximately 3,500,000 fully registered members. The site was purchased by YouthStream Media Networks for $125 million in December 1999. SixDegrees.com closed one year later in 2000, and then recovered a few years later.
Selected Academic Literature
SixDegrees.com is a social network service website that initially lasted from 1997 to 2001 and was based on the Web Contacts model of social networking, and we must note how successful this networking site was without the use of profile photos. It was named after the six-degree separation concept and allowed internet users for the first time to list friends, family members and acquaintances both on site and externally; external contacts were invited to join the site. People who have confirmed a relationship with an existing user but have not registered with the site have continued to receive occasional email updates and enquiries. Users could send messages and post bulletin board items to people in their first, second, and third grades, and see their connection to any other user on the site, all of these functions still exist today on current Social network pages.
Fun Fact: Andrew Weinreich had a close group of friends who had made a pact that, if either of them had thought of a business idea that they thought would be successful, they would have to ask the group of friends if they wanted to be part of the plan, but they had to agree to leave their current jobs and join the business at the outset. None of his friends saw the potential in the business. Andrew Weinreich sold Sixdegrees.Com for $125 million, just months before the DOT COM Bust!
References/Notes
SixDegrees.com Bibliography
‘SixDegrees.Com’. In Wikipedia, 6 December 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SixDegrees.com&oldid=992750776.
‘TECHNOLOGY & MEDIA: PATENTS; Idea for Online Networking Brings Two Entrepreneurs Together – New York Times’. Accessed 8 January 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20101102235354/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/01/technology/technology-media-patents-idea-for-online-networking-brings-two-entrepreneurs.html.
‘Then and Now: A History of Social Networking Sites’. Accessed 8 January 2021. https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/then-and-now-a-history-of-social-networking-sites/.
‘Witness History – Six Degrees – the First Online Social Network – BBC Sounds’. Accessed 8 January 2021. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3csywv4.
