Curated playlist
IOS software
- Steam (service)Steam began as a tool to stop players waiting days for game patches. Valve launched it in September 2003.
- Photos (Apple)Apple's Photos app can find a picture from a phrase like "cat in a box." It needs no tags or folders to do it.
- FacebookFacebook's blue color scheme traces to Mark Zuckerberg being red-green colorblind.
- X (social network)X, formerly known as Twitter, began not as a grand vision for a global platform but as a small experiment inside a podcasting startup called Odeo. Jack Dorsey wanted to capture something specific in the name: the physical sensation of…
- HBO MaxHBO Max pulled Gone with the Wind days after it launched in 2020. The film returned sixteen days later.
- SpotifySpotify got its name from a word Daniel Ek misheard across the room. Its founders later built a meaning around it.
- Apple MusicTaylor Swift threatened to keep 1989 off Apple Music. Apple reversed its free-trial pay policy a day later.
- TikTokTikTok reached a billion active users within four years, faster than Facebook, Instagram or YouTube.
- Amazon Prime VideoAmazon Prime Video began in 2006 as a download shop called Amazon Unbox.
- InstagramInstagram grew out of a failed check-in app called Burbn. Its makers kept the photo feature users liked most.
- NetflixNetflix began as a company that mailed DVDs in red envelopes. Streaming was reportedly the real goal all along.
- HidiveHidive took over an older anime streaming service, Anime Network Online, in 2017.
- MyspaceIn March 2019, a botched server move erased 12 years of Myspace posts and photos. The site had no backup.
- StubHubStubHub began when Eric Baker struggled to find a secondhand Lion King ticket.
- Peacock (streaming service)Peacock's first exclusive NFL playoff game drew an average of 23 million viewers in January 2024.
- Disney+Disney+ signed up more than 10 million people on its first day. Many then hit lockouts and errors.
- HuluHulu began in 2007 as a team-up between rival networks News Corporation and NBC Universal.
- Microsoft TranslatorMicrosoft Translator grew out of Word's grammar correction feature.
- YouTubeYouTube began as a video dating site that offered women $100 to upload clips.
- DiscordDiscord grew out of a failed mobile game. Jason Citron's studio shifted to chat after its game flopped.
- CrunchyrollCrunchyroll began in 2006 as a pirate site for fan-subtitled shows. Sony later bought it for $1.175 billion.
- Paramount+Paramount+ began in 2014 as CBS All Access, little more than CBS's website and app repackaged.
- FunimationFunimation was partly funded by the sale of a Texas feed mill. The Cocanougher family sold it to back the anime company.
- MyAnimeListMyAnimeList got its name from Myspace. Garrett Gyssler first launched the anime site as AnimeList in 2004.
- Google PhotosGoogle Photos began in May 2015 as a spinoff from the failed social network Google+.
- SiriSusan Bennett recorded Siri's American voice in July 2005 without knowing what it was for.
- SnapchatSnapchat began in 2011 under the name Picaboo. Its idea was that sent photos would simply vanish.
- Yahoo FinanceIn 2008, Yahoo Finance removed the paywall on real-time stock quotes.