While social networking websites like i-Partment are enjoying a massive boom in popularity currently, their development can be traced back to 1992 and the rise of the Internet itself. It was around that time that newsgroups, a means for groups of like-minded Internet users to chat, discuss, and share ideas, sprang up.
像「愛情公寓」這類目前網路上最「夯」的社群網站，發展歷史約可回溯至 1992 年網路初興起，當時已出現了所謂的「Newsgroup」（新聞群組），由一群有共同興趣的網友，聚在同一個討論區，聊天、提問及分享心得。