How do I go about starting a site like Facebook

Im tired of facebook and wondered what it entails to start a social media site like that . Can you help me?

Come on, I know that you are just jovially joking. :wonky:

Luckily, for me though, I do not belong to any social network sites. :winky:

I definitely do not need anything social to sap my very limited vitality. :eek:

coothead

I should start with a few million dollars…

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…and a lobotomy. :scream:

coothead

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My question is, if you are “tired of it”, why on earth would you want a site “like that”?

In any case, I don’t know as “a few million dollars” is accurate.
But it is probably a lot closer to the truth than you image.

To develop a complex site, “good, fast, cheap - pick two” applies.

For something as complicated as a Facebook variant I can’t imagine any one person living long enough to do it by themselves. So “good and cheap” are out because you need “fast” (relatively speaking) to be one of them.

Not to say that a MVP couldn’t be put together in the hopes of generating enough income to the point that the dev team could be expanded. But it wouldn’t be easy.

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Mark Zuckerberg did it (largely) by himself and he wasn’t first to the market, so its definitely doable but very difficult.

Some food for thought:

I’m guessing that a big difference here might be that Mark Zuckerberg didn’t start by posting in the beginners’ section of a forum, asking how to do it.

@annemariebarnett: IMHO, it would be better to start with a smaller project and don’t try to run before you can walk.

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I don’t think facebook is anything out of this world. The money involved is more to do with getting market placement more than development in my opinion.

At the end of the day its a website that has a database of people that are interconnected. Whilst this is over simplifying it a fair bit it is at the end of the day what it is.

Sure if you want to be able to host a billion users on the first day you will need money to run thousands of servers but if you are starting a small social network website where you link friends and family and grow from there i don’t see it is that difficult. The hardest part is getting people to use it and making it different in a good way from facebook and even then the ‘different’ part would have to be significant enough to make people bother to change.

Whether the world needs another website full of ‘look what i am eating’ posts/pictures is another story.

Well , you surely have
• Dream Big
• Plan , plan re-plan …
• Make a Business plan
• Be Positive
• And be patient.

Facebook has a perfect business plan, the content is generated by its users, so they don’t really spend much time behind the screen and publishing things… so in the meantime they are developping codes etc.

Making things automatic is part of the future, focus on this point maybe you will get an idea…

Joss_

Cheers!

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There is a social network just like facebook. It is VK.
Vk is a Russian website with a lot of European users and its a third largest social network in the world.

Making a social network just like FB is doable and doesn’t require million dollars. facebook is built on PHP so if you want to start with Php there are courses and tutorials available.

But Again, Facebook is a giant and I would say there is no point in making a similar site to compete with another. people will choose facebook over other unless and of course, you are going to offer a site that is as responsive as the FB and way more user-friendly.(FB even uses machine learning for images)

Social network services like twitter, instagram, Snapchat offered the users a variety of platform to share images or connect with people and stuff.

So if you have a unique plan or something and basic programming knowledge then DM me.
I’m a programmer and a data analyst happens to know how to make a social network site like FB, Twitter. Maybe we could make the next big social network.

OP - Beyond the technical concerns, what are you looking to get out of it? For instance, do you have ambitions to make it into a viable business and rival some of the bigger social networks, or is it more of a hobby project?

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I would start by thinking what exactly about Facebook you would improve on and then create your own unique angle. There’s no point in creating a social network just to spite Facebook, but rather, if you feel like there is something lacking in the current social network scene, then start your own concept.

If you are a developer than that will be easy for you to build a website, think some attractive idea and lets give it a try.
And if you are not a developer than find developer and share your idea to build a website

You should start small, then think even smaller and then some.

Maybe make one just for your and your friends and then let it evolve from there, you may find out some cool ideas along the way!

Edit: Don’t even go for a full social media site at first. Maybe just try an instant messaging cilent or a page where users can put anything and then they link you to their page.
There would still be a lot to do in that

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Only really stopped by here out of morbid curiosity to see what others think, nothing wrong with thinking big if you have the skills at your disposal and some investment, personally I would not try to compete in that niche or at least offer a new concept or idea as opposed to offering the same thing as what’s currently available… my general advice would be the same as many here, start smaller, develop your skills or pay someone that has them already…

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Aside from the technical aspects, I would come up with an idea that has something different to offer than Facebook, something that sets it apart - anything else will just be a replica of the already popular site. If you come up with a unique feature or angle, it gives people a reason to join your particular site rather than the ones that are already out there. Of course this is thinking extremely far ahead, but you need to know your objective before you can start working towards it :slight_smile:

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