Do you remember how the world was 10 years ago? How was your life without a smartphone, 4G or Uber? It’s shocking to remember how different the world was. Our life is easier now with all these amazing services and products that have been invented in the last ten years.
Below we made a list with some of the most useful things that were launched and helped us in ways we couldn’t imagine.
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iPhone
“Apple is going to reinvent the phone,” Steve Jobs
iPhone is the first smartphone designed and marketed by Apple INC in January 2007. Steve Jobs said that Apple had been developing it for 3 years before launching it.
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Kindle
Kindle was released by Amazon on November 19, 2007. It was a huge success and it was sold out in just five hours. The device remained out of stock for five months. It was the only Kindle that had expandable storage using an SD card slot. It was sold for US$399.
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4G
How will your life look like without 4G network? Can you imagine that? This was the real life seven years ago. The first 4G phone was Sprint’s HTC Evo that was launched in March 2010. iPhone didn’t use 4G until iPhone5 was released in 2012.
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Android
“I’d like to introduce you to the Android platform. This is a platform we hope will enable people to create thousands of G Phones.” – Horowitz said.
Android mobile operating system came to life with the public release of the Android beta in November 2007. Android 1.0, the commercial version, was released one year later, in September 2008.
Android is developed by Google founder Sergey Brin and engineering director Steve Horowitz.
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Whatsapp
Koum was telling Acton that he thought about giving up and wanted to look for a steady job. Acton replied by saying “You’d be an idiot to quit now. Give it a few more months.”
Jan Koum and Brian Acton wished to make a messaging app, so they incorporated WhatsApp in 2009 before the app had been written. The app was a real success and it was used by people from over the world. In 2012 WhatsApp caught the attention of Mark Zuckerberg. And in 2014 WhatsApp was bought for $19 billion by the Facebook CEO.
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Airbnb
Airbnb was founded in August 2008 and it was based in San Francisco, California. The idea for Airbnb formed in 2007 when co-founder Joe Gebbia sent an email to his roommate, Brian Chesky, suggesting they rent out their apartment to make some extra money. After a few attempts, Air Bed & Breakfast was launched in 2008 as an online community marketplace for people to list and book places all over the world.
Now, in 2017, Airbnb is valued at $31 billion and it’s the second-highest-valued startup in the USA.
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Spotify
Spotify was developed in 2006 and launched in October 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden. It was founded by Daniel Ek, former CTO of Stardoll, and Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of TradeDoubler. At first, everyone could buy premium subscription of Spotify, but the free version was available only with invitation.
In 2017, Spotify has 140 million users all over the world.
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Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a digital currency that is used to make payments without fees. It was invented in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, a secret internet user, and it went online a year later, in 2009. Even if people tried to discover who Satoshi really was, there were no convincing proofs about his identity.
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Kickstarter
“Kickstarter PBC is a funding platform for creative projects. Everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is full of ambitious, innovative, and imaginative ideas that are brought to life through the direct support of others.”
Kickstarter was founded by Charles Adler, Perry Chen and Yancey Strickler in April 2009. The first product that was launched for sale was a Grace Jone t-shirt that was created by Chen but it didn’t meet its fundraising goal.
Until now, there are 13 million of people that backed their projects and has been raised $3.2 billion on the site.
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Square
Square, Inc. develops and provides payment processing, point-of-sale (POS), financial, and marketing services worldwide.
Square was launched by Jack Dorsey in October 2010 after Jim McKelvey couldn’t make a $2,000 sale of hiss glass faucets and fitting because he couldn’t accept American Express cards. The name inspiration comes from Square’s card readers, which are square in shape.
Square is now valued at $9,75 billion.
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Instagram
Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and launched in October 2010. At first, it was a free mobile app that was exclusive just for the iOS. And by 2011, Instagram was Apple’s iPhone app of the year. The Android version was released two years later, in April 2012. After that, in 2016, they also launched apps for Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10.
Instagram now has over 200 million daily active users. Also, Instagram has launched InstaStories, has added live video, stickers and has expanded into direct messaging.
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Snapchat
Snapchat was created by Spiegel and Bobby Murphy and was first launched on the App Store in the summer of 2011. At that moment, the app was called Pictaboo because they wanted to create an app that would send photos that would disappear after a while. In September 2011 they changed the name to Snapchat and relaunched it in the iOS App Store.
Six years later, Snapchat is valued at $18 billion.
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Google Chrome
“On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast,” Pichai wrote. “It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.” – Google CEO Sundar Pichai (who was vice president of product management at the time) wrote on the official Google blog
Google released the Chrome browser on September 2008, for Microsoft Windows. They later ported it to Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android.
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Uber
Uber was built by Garrett Camp, Oscar Salazar, and Conrad Whelan, with Travis Kalanick as an adviser at first, CEO later. It was launched in March 2009, as a black-car service. As the years have passed, Uber has expanded to luxury rides, ride-sharing and so much more.
Eight years later, Uber still remains the world’s most valuable startup at about $70 billion.
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