Throwback to when Facebook was launched by Mark Zuckerberg on 4th February 2004. Mark created TheFacebook in his Havard dorm room and it would later become known as Facebook.
It may not be common knowledge but before developing and launching the platform Zuckerberg had created one software one year earlier, called FaceMash. The software allowed users to compare two people’s photos.
He got the idea of creating both FaceMash and Facebook from the face books that were already popular in Havard. The face book is a student directory featuring photos and basic information.
When FaceMash became a thing, there were no universal online facebooks at Harvard. They had only paper sheets delivered to students and private online directories. Mark said that students were talking about a unifying face book at the time. Then, he had boasted about being able to write software to do that within a week.
However, Mark Zuckerberg didn’t achieve the feat alone. He had help from his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.
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Within 24 hours of launch, between 1200 to 1500 people registered and this was only in Havard campuses. Later, the founders allowed students in other universities around the United States and Canada.
It only became available to everybody worldwide who had a valid email address and were above 13 years in September 2006. From 2006 onward, Facebook has grown into the most widely used social platform around the world.
Also, the company has diversified into different fields and businesses. It has gaming businesses, virtual reality technology and is striving for its own cryptocurrency.
In recent times, Facebook has faced many criticisms as regards its policies and user security.
One major scandal that the company was involved in was the Cambridge Analytical scandal. Cambridge Analytica had harvested the personal data of millions of people’s Facebook profiles without their consent. Then the company had used it for political advertising purposes
Until today, lawsuits still keep springing up from the case with the company settling many of them by huge payments.
Yet, it is undeniable that Facebook set the pace for many social platforms today. Its CEO Mark Zuckerberg was the seventh-richest person in the world with a net worth of $63 billion in March 2019.
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