Social media logos past and present: would you have recognised TikTok?

by Johannes

Social media logos change over time. With new updates or sale to other companies, suddenly the logo can also be modified. This can also be the case with well-known social media.

Social media logos: This is what the old TikTok logo looked like

  • TikTok is one of the most popular apps because you can go viral quickly on the social platform even without a large number of followers. The origin of TikTok lies with the app musical.ly, which was founded in 2014. The function of the social network was to sing playback to sounds or dance to them. In 2017, the app was sold to the Chinese company ByteDance for over 800 million US dollars. One year later, both the name and the logo were completely changed.

Social Media Logos: YouTube past and present

  • The video portal YouTube was founded in 2005. Since then, the logo has hardly changed. The original logo shows “You” in black letters and “Tube” in white letters in a red rectangle. The term “tube” refers to a CRT tube that used to be used in televisions. Gradually, the red of the logo has become sometimes lighter, sometimes darker. Since 2017, the font has been completely black and stands next to a red “play” symbol, which fits the function of the video platform.

Social Media Logos: The evolution of Instagram

  • One of the biggest changes has come to Instagram’s logo. The photo-sharing app is the most popular and widely used social media platform. Many may not even remember the first logo of the app, which was released in 2010. However, the basis of the symbol was always an instant camera, which symbolises the function of the platform. The original logo, designed by Kevin Systrom, showed a white Polaroid camera. Over time, this logo was abstracted further and further until the logo we know today was finally created.

Social Media Logos: From twttr to Twitter

  • Actually, the social platform founded in 2005 was supposed to be called twttr and have a green lettering as its logo. Shortly afterwards, the green lettering “twttr” became the blue lettering “twitter”. Then in 2010, the famous bird named Larry became part of the logo. This is due to the fact that the inspiration for the name “Twitter” comes from the English word for “twitter”. Since 2012 until today, the blue silhouette of the bird has been the symbol of the app. Larry, by the way, was named after NBA Boston Celtic player Larry Bird and represents a mountain lodge singer.

Social Media Logos: Facemash becomes Facebook

  • Mark Zuckerberg founded the website “Facemash” in 2003. The logo featured the white lettering “Facemash” on a red background. One year later, it developed into Facebook as we know it today. At first, “thefacebook” was still in square brackets and light blue lettering on a dark blue background. Shortly afterwards, the light blue became white and just “facebook”. Since then, the symbol has hardly changed. The current logo shows the blue lettering “facebook”. Translated meaningfully, the name of the social network means something like “yearbook”.

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