[nostrademons]

I'd argue that there were social-networking platforms that were better than Facebook years before it came out. LiveJournal, for instance, was one of the few online places where you actually make new friends instead of just collating the ones you already had. I just hung out this Thanksgiving with a couple who I met on LJ over a decade ago; they also met doing LJ support, and at their wedding 7 years ago, about 3/4 of the guests were friends from LiveJournal, many of whom had never met in person before. A lot of the features that Google+ has "innovated" with (Circles/friends-groups, Communities) or that have Facebook has recently added (mood icons, threaded commenting) were things that LJ had a decade ago.

Facebook won because the killer feature that distinguishes a social network is who's on it. They started out at the most high-status house on the most high-status college in the most high-status country, and then spread like wildfire from there. By contrast, LJ was popular with fandom and with Russians, neither of which are groups that ordinary, affluent, socially-connected Americans would much like to hang out with.