Facebook is celebrating its 19th year since its official launch by Mark Zuckerberg, along with his college roommates and fellow students at Harvard University. With billions of daily active users, the social networking site remains successful despite several setbacks experienced through the years.
Facebook logo is pictured on a laptop screen in Moscow on August 26, 2021. - Russia has fined Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp for failing to store the data of Russian users on local servers, the country's internet watchdog said on August 26, as authorities clamp down on foreign internet companies. KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images
(Photo : KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images) Facebook logo is pictured on a laptop screen in Moscow on August 26, 2021. - Russia has fined Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp for failing to store the data of Russian users on local servers, the country's internet watchdog said on August 26, as authorities clamp down on foreign internet companies.
Looking Back
Before becoming Facebook, National Today stated that Zuckerberg launched Facemash in 2003 during his sophomore year. The website was set up as a "hot or no" game for students that allowed visitors of the website to compare two students' picture side by side. This attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo views in the first four of its release.
The website was shut down two days after violating university policy in acquiring resources. But the motivation of making a new website struck the group, which led to making Facebook in February 2004. Originally, the website's membership was limited only to Harvard students. But eventually expanded to other universities and colleges in the United States, such as Yale and Standford.
Zuckerberg stated via The Harvard Crimson, "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." He intended to create this platform to connect and communicate with people around the university.
Because of its popularity, Facebook hosted around 25,000 students from several universities by June 2004. Credit card company MasterCard paid Facebook for exposure, as they saw the potential of the website going further. By the end of the year, Facebook reached one million users.
Two years later, Facebook reached six million active users. Advertisers began reaching the team to capture the online market before other competitors could take advantage of the situation. By looking through these numbers, the platform became so much more popular than the team can ever imagine.
Facebook is an application made for connections, discovery, and visibility. The company's mission statement remains to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.
Acquisitions
In 2012, Facebook went public as it raised $16 billion. Three months after this announcement, the company revealed that it has reached an agreement to acquire Instagram for approximately $1 billion.
Zuckerberg stated, "We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook."
Forbes reported that Facebook also acquired the messaging application WhatsApp in 2014. This deal made WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Actor became billionaires as Zuckerberg bought the platform for $19 billion.
