Today marks ten years since Hyves ceased to be a social network. Founded in 2004, the Dutch Friends site has gone big for scribbling, clicking, sharing respect and, of course, the dancing banana photo.
Er was een moment dat Hyves tien miljoen gebruikers telde. Zoals iedereen nu een account op Facebook en Instagram heeft, zat iedereen toen op Hyves.
In de kern was Hyves al wat we nu nog steeds van sociale media kennen. Je maakte er vrienden, kon er foto’s, video’s en berichten delen en er waren pagina’s rond verschillende onderwerpen, zodat gelijkgestemden elkaar konden vinden.
Het eerste jaar groeide de dienst als kool nadat oprichters Raymond Spanjar, Koen Kam en Floris Rost van Tonningen een functie bouwden waarmee mensen in een klap al hun Hotmail-contacten konden uitnodigden. Na een jaar zaten een miljoen mensen op Hyves.
Ondertussen waren in de Verenigde Staten ook een aantal netwerken in opkomst. Facebook en MySpace waren verwikkeld in een populariteitswedstrijd. Wie er uiteindelijk heeft gewonnen, is inmiddels wel duidelijk.
Miljoenen profielen zijn gearchiveerd
Aanvankelijk had Hyves weinig last van Facebook. In 2010 verwelkomde Hyves zelfs zijn tienmiljoenste lid. Daarvan zijn tot op de dag van vandaag nog zo’n negen miljoen profielen te vinden via de Wayback Machine van het Internet Archive. Als je je accountnaam nog weet, kun je hem opzoeken. Die van demissionair premier Mark Rutte is op die manier bijvoorbeeld nog terug te halen. Hij schreef op zijn profiel bijvoorbeeld: “Als echte VVD-er heb ik vroeger aan hockey gedaan”.
This is the only way to find old Hyves pages. In 2013, Hyves ceased to be a social network. The Dutch founders sold the service at the height of its success in 2010 to De Telegraaf Media Groep (TMG). Hyves made €43.7 million. A year later, Facebook became larger than Hives in the Netherlands for the first time. Facebook continued to grow.
From the friends site to the gaming portal
TMG was unable to attract the attention of Hyves users. Significant losses have been incurred since the acquisition. The new cycle from friends site to news platform in 2011 didn’t help either. Two years later, TMG announced that the social network would be closed and the site would become a portal for online games. This is still the case today.
Ten years after Hyves closed, we mainly use the social media platforms of major American tech companies. For example, Meta owns not only Facebook, but also Instagram and WhatsApp. These applications have billions of users around the world. Services like YouTube and TikTok, which have little to do with social media, also attract millions of people every day.
New social media platforms come and go
In fact there are no longer Dutch alternatives. Although sometimes there are attempts. For example, PubHubs is being developed, a social network where people can join groups of like-minded people. With the promise that it will not become a “looting network.” Your data remains yours. But it is unclear when this network will actually take shape.
The social media landscape continues to evolve, even though established companies have been at the top for years. Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter last year proved that anything can happen, even at this type of company. Due to rumblings on Twitter, which is now called X, many people have looked for an alternative. For example, services like Bluesky and Mastodon saw a significant increase in their visitor numbers in 2023, although they are still far from matching Facebook and X.
In fact, after Musk acquired the company, word of “Hyves” was widely shared on the service. Many people were longing for a hassle-free, local platform like Hyves. Who knows, maybe one day this comeback will happen, but for now it will just be nostalgia.