Amazon could have had a Facebook of its very own
It can be safely said that PlanetAll is/was the biggest social media platform out there. Millions of people post pictures, share stuff and connect with friends via this platform. What the hell is PlanetAll? Facebook is the biggest social media platform out there. I have never even heard PlanetAll's name. However, we all could've if Amazon didn't make a big mistake. Here's more.
Like peas in a pod
It's almost uncanny how PlanetAll's story is so similar to that of Facebook's. It started at Harvard in 1996. Its goal was "to make the world a smaller place by helping people effortlessly find and stay in touch with friends, colleagues, and groups important to them." Where have I heard this line? "Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life."
The first social networking giant
PlanetAll, as agreed by many, was the first social networking site. When Jeff Bezos acquired it in 1998, it had around 1.5 million users and thousands were joining every day. The platform was just two years old then and the possibilities were enormous. Then again, if you don't act on the possibilities, they never become a reality. That was sadly the case.
An opportunity wasted
Despite making statements like, "PlanetAll is the most innovative use of the Internet I've seen," Bezos could never develop the site as per its full potential. Two years after the acquisition, no one even remembered that something like PlanetAll ever existed. Mark Zuckerberg was 14 years old when PlanetAll sank into oblivion. If PlanetAll was here today, Facebook probably wouldn't have been.
What it was and what it could have been
PlanetAll had a phenomenal run. Connecting to friends that you've lost touch with, in the online world, may sound cliché now, thanks to a plethora of platforms. However, in those days, it was a novel idea. Everything was falling into place - good user numbers, great growth. The firm even raised $4.5 million in its first investment round. Business, as they say, was booming.
A smart move and a terrible follow up
Even Amazon was way different back then. Today it sells, A to Z, all products but back then it was just an online book store. However, Jeff Bezos sniffed an opportunity in PlanetAll. In August 1998, PlanetAll was acquired for 800,000 shares, which is, roughly, $90 million. However, Bezos didn't want it for its social networking chops. He wanted it for the user base.
Too little, too late
In July of 2000, Amazon shut PlanetAll down and took some of its features and integrated it into the Amazon website. This move came back to haunt Bezos after eight long years when Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook toppled MySpace, the most popular social networking of that era. He had, then in 2008, hurriedly filed a patent for a "social networking system."
It's a distant memory now
The patent was okayed by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2010. However, by then it was too late. Facebook had already become immensely popular and toppling it would've been a difficult task. Jeff Bezos is not exactly poor with what he has. Not a social networking giant, but Amazon is still a mammoth in e-commerce space. Bezos will have to make do.
