Communities.com
Encyclopedia
Communities.com is a non-commercial advertisement-free Internet social networking site that started in 1996 and is considered the first social network in the world. Also, it is one of the oldest social networks still operating.
The site grew to over 5 million registered users and it is estimated Communities.com was the largest social network until MySpace exceeded its size some years later.
Communities.com was originally located across from Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California. At the time, Communities purchased a number of high-profile Internet companies, including Microcosm, OnLive and The Palace.
In late 2000, Communities.com pulled their IPO with an initial $2.1 billion valuation. Six months later, Open Text made a 1.5-million-dollar investment before the company filed Chapter 7 in 2001. A Communities.com junior employee, who made less than $50,000 a year, purchased the social network for approximately $30,000 out of bankruptcy.
Patrick and Ingemar are said to have bought the domain. As per Patrick, the domain was first registered in 1995 by "Electric Communities Inc.", who had over $100 million in venture capital. When Electric Communities filed chapter 11, "The Ace of Nines" (a nickname) posted this story on fuckedcompany.com's msg boards: http://thecan.org/in/communities.html
Electric Communities filed chapter 11 and ceased all its business, including running the web sites communities.com and thepalace.com. The Palace was, and still is, a popular chat client developed by Electric Communities. Both domains (communities.com and thepalace.com) were dropped (anyone who wants can register them again and the domains will be theirs). Both domains were immediately picked up by someone or some company and sold at two different auctions. He continued running the site and it is now run by a group of volunteers.
The site communities.com was sold at a separate auction, which Patrick and Ingemar started with the offer of $5. They later got it at a much higher price, but still dirt cheap. In 2001 they were almost finished with their studies, they felt that they could and should do something good with communities.com; making an international community site where people from the whole world could come together and chat and have fun. So they developed an advanced community site instead.
Since then, the site is highly moderated by volunteer administrators. All pictures uploaded need to be manually authorized. The site has users from 185 countries with the highest number of users from Sweden followed by USA, UK and Canada.
This site was experiencing server problems in Sep-Oct 2011. As per one declaration by site admins, there has been a major breakdown of servers of this site, due to which users are unable to login to Communities.com. By end Oct 2011, new servers had been installed and the site is working efficiently once again since end Oct 2011.
History
Communities.com was originally funded by Softbank, the Japanese investment bank, with an initial $120 million investment. By 2000, a total of approximately $200 million was invested and the company had over 200 employees.The site grew to over 5 million registered users and it is estimated Communities.com was the largest social network until MySpace exceeded its size some years later.
Communities.com was originally located across from Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California. At the time, Communities purchased a number of high-profile Internet companies, including Microcosm, OnLive and The Palace.
In late 2000, Communities.com pulled their IPO with an initial $2.1 billion valuation. Six months later, Open Text made a 1.5-million-dollar investment before the company filed Chapter 7 in 2001. A Communities.com junior employee, who made less than $50,000 a year, purchased the social network for approximately $30,000 out of bankruptcy.
Patrick and Ingemar are said to have bought the domain. As per Patrick, the domain was first registered in 1995 by "Electric Communities Inc.", who had over $100 million in venture capital. When Electric Communities filed chapter 11, "The Ace of Nines" (a nickname) posted this story on fuckedcompany.com's msg boards: http://thecan.org/in/communities.html
Electric Communities filed chapter 11 and ceased all its business, including running the web sites communities.com and thepalace.com. The Palace was, and still is, a popular chat client developed by Electric Communities. Both domains (communities.com and thepalace.com) were dropped (anyone who wants can register them again and the domains will be theirs). Both domains were immediately picked up by someone or some company and sold at two different auctions. He continued running the site and it is now run by a group of volunteers.
The site communities.com was sold at a separate auction, which Patrick and Ingemar started with the offer of $5. They later got it at a much higher price, but still dirt cheap. In 2001 they were almost finished with their studies, they felt that they could and should do something good with communities.com; making an international community site where people from the whole world could come together and chat and have fun. So they developed an advanced community site instead.
Since then, the site is highly moderated by volunteer administrators. All pictures uploaded need to be manually authorized. The site has users from 185 countries with the highest number of users from Sweden followed by USA, UK and Canada.
This site was experiencing server problems in Sep-Oct 2011. As per one declaration by site admins, there has been a major breakdown of servers of this site, due to which users are unable to login to Communities.com. By end Oct 2011, new servers had been installed and the site is working efficiently once again since end Oct 2011.