SixDegrees.com is a

social network service A social networking service (SNS), or social networking site, is a type of online social media platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests ...

web site that started in 1997 and is based on the ''Web of Contacts'' model of

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

. It was named after the concept of six degrees of separation and allows users to list friends, family members and acquaintances whether registered on the site or not. External contacts are invited to join. People who confirm a relationship with an existing user but did not go on to register with the site continue to receive occasional email updates and solicitations. Users can 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. SixDegrees was one of the first social networking sites that later became highly popular. It was followed by more successful sites based on the "social-circles network model" such as

Friendster Friendster was a social networking service originally based in Mountain View, California, founded by Jonathan Abrams and launched in March 2003.Eric Eldon, August 4, 2008.Friendster raises $20 million, nabs a Googler to be CEO" VentureBeat. ...

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

XING Xing may refer to: * an abbreviation for crossing such as Pedestrian crossing, Pedestrian Xing or Wildlife crossing, Wildlife Xing, primarily used in North America * Chinese surname (姓, ''xing'') * Xing (surname) (邢), a Chinese surname * Xing ...

, and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. MacroView (later renamed to SixDegrees Inc.), the company that developed the site, was founded by CEO Andrew Weinreich in May 1996 and was based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. At its height, SixDegrees had around 100 employees, and the site had around 3,500,000 fully registered members. The site was bought by YouthStream Media Networks in December 1999 for $125 million. SixDegrees shut down one year later on December 30, 2000, then brought back up a few years after.

Andrew Weinreich

Andrew Weinreich ( ) is an American businessman primarily known for launching SixDegrees in 1997. In 2001, Weinreich founded Joltage, an infrastructure services business devoted to building out a global network of Wi-Fi hotspots. Joltage was forced to shut down in 2003 when the company ran out of funding. In 2003, Weinreich started I Stand For, Inc. He sold the company in February 2006. In February 2006, Weinreich co-founded MeetMoi with Jeremy Levy. In 2008, Weinreich and Jeremy Levy spun off the persistent tracking technologies of MeetMoi into a separate company called Xtify. Xtify was acquired by

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

on October 3, 2013.

Andrew Weinreich

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