studiVZ was founded in October 2005 and was originally designed for the 2.3 million students in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. There are now over 13 million registered members on the websites belonging to the operator studiVZ Ltd.
In February 2007, the schülerVZ was founded for students. According to the operators, four million users from Germany, Austria and Switzerland are networked through this website.
For users who have already completed their studies or are not studying at all, a third platform called meinVZ in English and German was opened on 28 February 2008.
With studiVZ and meinVZ, two platforms were connected by an interface for the first time, so that profiles can be accessed from both sides. With the platform schülerVZ such a connection does not exist for reasons of youth protection. There were also no connections between the different language platforms. According to the FAZ, meinVZ reached 3.17 million members in June 2009, many of whom, however, are former studiVZ users who moved here after a large-scale "move" campaign.