Facebook's transformation over a decade on its 10th anniversary
IN 10 years Facebook has gone from a college project to a company worth $US151 billion with lawsuits, movies, backlashes and the rest. See how it all started.
CAN you believe it's been 10 years? 10 years since Facebook (or The Facebook as it was known then) burst onto the social scene, transforming the way people connect forever.
Through lawsuits, privacy backlashes, a Hollywood movie and a botched IPO, the company has come out fighting and is now worth $US151 billion.
On its 10th birthday, we take a look back at how far Facebook has come from an exclusive Harvard, and then Ivy League, online network to a global phenomenon with 1.23 billion users.
THEN
Facebook launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin at Havard University. Initially it was a 'face book' for students of the prestigious college to connect on. Within five days it had more than 650 users. By the end of the year, it had 1 million users.
NOW
Fast forward to present day and the social network has 1.23 billion monthly active users globally and is worth $US151 billion. Zuckerberg's personal net worth skyrocketed to $US29.7 billion after the social network's share value soared following its latest results release.
THEN
Facebook first launched its mobile offering in April 2006, a full year before the debut of the iPhone.
NOW
Facebook's strategy is heavily focused on smartphones with almost a billion of its monthly users logging onto the network through a mobile device. And it's super-lucrative with more than half of its $US2.34 billion revenue coming through its mobile offering.
THEN
OK, we couldn't quite find a pic of Zuckerberg from his 2004 days but this 2006 photo is pretty close. Check out his on-trend tie.
He told the Harvard Crimson on February 9, 2004: "Everyone's been talking a lot about a universal face book within Harvard. I think it's kind of silly that it would take the university a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week.
"I'm pretty happy with the amount of people that been to it so far. The nature of the site is that each user's experience improves if they can get their friends to join it."
NOW
"It's been an incredible journey so far, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. It's been amazing to see how people have used Facebook to build a real community and help each other in so many ways. In the next decade, we have the opportunity and responsibility to connect everyone and to keep serving the community as best we can," Zuckerberg said to mark the anniversary.
To celebrate the milestone, Facebook will launch a 'Look Back' product which will give each user a personalised experience through video and images of their biggest moments since they joined Facebook.
Other key dates from Facebook's 10-year history:
October 2005
Begins to add international school networks.
Launch of Facebook photos.
September 2006
Expands registration so anyone over the age of 13 can join.
November 2007
Launch of Facebook Pages.
February 2009
Introduction of 'Like' button.
July 2010
Reaches 500 million viewers.
September 2011
Timeline introduced.
April 2012
Buys Instagram for $US1 billion.
May 2012
Debuts on the stock exchange.
October 2012
Reaches a billion users.
Interesting stats:
- 201.6 billion friend connections
- Six billion likes per day on average
- 400 billion photos shared
- 81 per cent of daily active users are outside of the US and Canada
- 25 million small business pages
- 6,337 employees worldwide
When did you join Facebook? Do you remember what your first post was? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @newscomauhq and @wenleima
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