LiveJournal (LJ), or Zhivoy Zhurnal (Живой Журнал) / ZheZhe (ЖЖ) in Russia is a social network owned by SUP Media where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary - a wide variety of political pundits also use the service for political commentary, particularly in Russia, where it partners with the politically independent online newspaper Gazeta.ru (also owned by parent company SUP Media). As with many other social networks, a wide variety of public figures use the network. However, LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community.
LiveJournal was started on April 15, 1999 by American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick as a way of keeping his high school friends updated on his activities. In January 2005, blogging software company Six Apart purchased Danga Interactive, the company that operated LiveJournal, from Fitzpatrick. Six Apart sold LiveJournal to Russian media company SUP Media in 2007, but continued to develop the site by the San Francisco-based company LiveJournal, Inc. In January 2009 LiveJournal laid off some employees and moved product development and design functions to Russia.
Read more about LiveJournal: Features, Features of Paid Account, Social Networking, Sale To Six Apart, Sale To SUP Media, Launch of LiveJournal Inc, Global Expansion, Other Sites Running The LiveJournal Engine