Catherine Cook

 

 

Catherine Cook is really well known to the world of online social networking because she created MyYearBook.com, highly respected website at the young age of 18yrs with her. Catherine has made most of her money through advertising revenue from which the website is supported and that turn her into a millionaire.

In 2005, Catherine Cook and her brother David had an idea for a startup when they were complaining about the choice of photographs in their annual school yearbook and they start to think to make a digital version. Using her computer, she set up a social networking site in her bedroom and she success. 25 million users across the United States has sign up in six years and generated 1.2 billion monthly page views. The company has just been valued at 20 million.

Myyearbook.com is one of the top 25 most visited sites in the country which focused at mostly under 18 years old from the US which is aimed at mostly less than 18yrs from the US.  The website is really interesting and if have not been on the website, you better check it out.

MyYearBook

MeetMe was initially created as myYearbook during Spring Break of 2005. The site was created entirely by developers in India.

In 2008, myYearbook partnered with casual game developer Arkadium to bring Flash based games to the site. The games incorporate Lunch Money, the myYearbook virtual currency. Lunch Money earned playing games are used elsewhere on the site.

In April 2009, the site added the Meebo instant messaging client to the site in order to provide real time chat.

In November 2009, myYearbook launched Chatter, a real-time stream that incorporates media sharing and gaming to help bring members together. Games you can play inside the stream include Ask Me, Rate Me and 2 Truths and a Lie. These games incorporate mechanics that help myYearbook members meet each other. By April 2010 the site reported the Chatter feature surpassed 1 million posts per day.

In January 2010, myYearbook rolled out a new site design aimed to appeal to an older demographic. Of note is the "winning" site design was chosen through crowd-sourcing its members.

In May 2010, myYearbook launched an iPhone/iPod Touch and Android application designed to bring the Chatter real time feed to mobile devices.

In July 2011, myYearbook announced it had agreed to be acquired by Latino social networking site Quepasa for $100 Million In Cash And Stock. The purchase was finalized on November 11, 2011.

In December 2011, myYearbook launched an iPad app in an attempt to reach the tablet market. On June 4, 2012, myYearbook was renamed Meet Me. This change is due to the fact that "Yearbook" means more about meeting friends from the past while "Meet Me" will give the meaning of users making new friends, which is what the website is intended for.  The rebranding of the site proved to be successful

JEALOUSY

Catherine was also the victim of jealousy, similar to that felt by Zuckerberg. When the site became an overnight success, there was a weird situation with a guy in her Spanish class. They were friends but  he suddenly stopped speaking to her. It turned out his parents had given him a hard time, compare him with Catherine.

She was even told that she would never compete with MySpace which she now has a quarter of their number of visitors and employs 100 people.

However, there are still a lot of people that always with her. Catherine said that most of her friends were really into the idea. They joined the site and make suggestions like you should be able to give people high fives or suggested gold stars instead of "likes".