For more than 30 years people all over the world have been sharing files. You’re probably familiar with DropBox or Google Drive, but did you know that file sharing began in 1978 with a platform called Usenet?
Current generations share on a daily basis, from funny memes on Facebook to mouth-watering recipes on Pinterest. However, social media is only one way to share, and it’s certainly not a first among sharing platforms. That honor goes to Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis who created the platform Usenet to engage users across the world and stimulate conversation in 1978.
By 1985 the basic concept for uploading and sharing a file, called File Transfer Protocol was created. In 1999 we had the first peer-to-peer (P2P) network called Napster. At least 7 more systems were built over the next 9 years which brought us to the applications we are familiar with now, namely DropBox and Google Drive.
Currently, more than 20 million people share files daily on a variety of platforms. Interestingly enough, US is not the leading country in file sharing. Russia tops the list while the US is fifth after China, Brazil, and India. The ways people share their data grows daily, and we feel the best is yet to come. Although sharing documents is essential for global business communication, other platforms like driverless ridesharing is changing the way we travel.