Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard roommates in February 2004 as TheFacebook, initially allowing users to create profiles, share photos, and connect with others. Inspired by his earlier project, FaceMash, Zuckerberg saw the potential for social networking and quickly expanded the platform. Within a year, Facebook reached 1 million users, leading Zuckerberg to leave Harvard and move to California, where investor Peter Thiel provided $500,000 in funding. By December 2005, Facebook had 5.5 million users, attracting acquisition offers from major companies like Yahoo, which Zuckerberg declined to focus on growth. Over time, Facebook evolved into a tech giant, acquiring Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus VR, and other platforms while expanding services like Messenger and Facebook Watch. Despite criticism over data privacy and misinformation, Facebook remains a dominant force in social media, largely driven by its advertising revenue.
When Was Facebook Created?
Facebook’s foundation story is fascinating. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates in a dormitory room at Harvard University in June 2004 to be an American social media service. Mr. Zuckerberg founded the site at the age of 20 while studying at Harvard University. The first domain name was TheFacebook.com. When he and his friends created The Facebook, the website allowed users to create their profiles, upload and share a photo, and communicate with other users. The number of Facebook users reached 5.5 million in December 2005- just a year later. Because of this, the website attracted popular companies’ attention, and many companies, such as Yahoo, had wished to make the acquisition, but Zuckerberg turned down offers. Instead, he focused on growth and adding more features on the website.
Nowadays, the company offers different types of products and services from Facebook Messenger to Facebook Watch. Moreover, the Facebook company bought up Instagram, Whatsapp, Giphy and Mapillary, and Oculus VR.
How Did Facebook Begin?
Before Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg created FaceMash, a controversial platform that compared students’ photos based on attractiveness. The project was quickly shut down due to backlash from women’s groups and Harvard administration. However, this experience led Zuckerberg to recognize the potential of social networking, and he launched TheFacebook on February 4, 2004.
Within 24 hours, thousands of students had joined. By the end of the year, Facebook had 1 million active users, prompting Zuckerberg to leave Harvard and relocate to California to grow the platform. Around this time, billionaire investor Peter Thiel provided $500,000 in funding, helping Facebook expand globally.
Over the years, Facebook became one of the biggest tech companies, but it also faced criticism for data privacy concerns, fake news, and misinformation. Despite this, advertising revenue remains Facebook’s primary income source, securing its dominance in the social media landscape.
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2 Comments
As they say, he who owns Facebook, owns the entire data of the World. Pretty much sums it up.
What self-serving claptrap! What has unfortunately happened is that Facebook has become, in many ways, the new public square – which ought to be a place of free and open discussion and debate. Under the guise of the post-modernist nonsense that speech somehow magically transforms into action, Facebook stifles communication, debate and controversy from people it doesn’t like or expunges views which it finds inconvenient. Words are not a threat to freedom – they’re just words – not sticks and stones. Instead, Facebook monitors – who can’t tell a joke from a threat or distinguish between talking about a slap and a real slap, censor communication among people everyday. Facebook is a real threat to free thinking and the democratic republic because it limits open communication. Facebook needs to be regulated to end it’s capricious control of debate in the public square.