Tuesday marks the tenth birthday of Facebook. Not everyone on the social network might know this but it's likely that the majority of its 1.23 billion users across the globe probably do.
About half of the world's Internet users has a Facebook account and about 757 million of them Like, Share, and post whatever is on their mind on their Timeline on a daily basis. From a dorm room to almost every computer, smartphone, and tablet in existence today, the social network has traveled a long way. In fact, Facebook might have given life to the term "social media" about a decade or so since it was coined. It might have also redefined friendships, how people do business along the way, and how sentiments of others mold one's character.
From dorm room to the world
"It was a great end to the year for Facebook. We're looking forward to our next decade and to helping connect the rest of the world," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and chief executive, in a statement after the company released its 2013 Q4 earnings and financial summary on Jan. 29.
Facebook earned $2.59 billion in Q4 and $7.87 billion in total for 2013. Its fourth quarter earnings represents a 63 percent increase compared to the same quarter last year while the annual income marks a good 55 percent jump from its earnings year-over-year. From its initial investment of $500,000 coming from Peter Thiel of Paypal, the company is now valued to be over $150 billion.
These numbers were far from Zuckerberg's mind when he created "theFacebook" together with some friends from their dorm at Harvard University in 2004. However, its destiny changed when it hit one million users during its first year and expanded its reach to more than 800 college networks the following year. By December 2009, its users surged to 350 million, 500 million in 2010, in June 2011 to 750 million, and to a billion in October 2012.
"It was awesome to have this utility and community at our school. It didn't even occur to me that it could be us," said Zuckerberg at the recent Open Compute Project Summit.
From a cramped dorm, the company has now more than 6,337 employees and sprawling offices in several U.S. states and 24 other countries.
The growth of the dorm room phenomenon did not go unnoticed by the bigwigs of the technology world. The 20-year-old Facebook founder was offered $10 million by an unnamed financier barely a few months after going live. MySpace, the then social network leader felt threatened by the young social network startup, even as Google, Viacom, NBC, and AOL showed interest. Yahoo offered over a billion dollars but was turned down. In 2007, Microsoft expressed a $15 billion be-ours offer. However, for all of these eye-popping and jaw-dropping offers, Facebook clicked the "dislike" button.
Fast forward to Facebook being the alpha dog of the social network world. It attempted to acquire teen popular Snapchat for $3 billion maybe in a bid to plug a leak at a time when most of its young users find it boring. In 2012, Facebook bought the photo sharing site Instagram for a billion dollars. The list of acquisitions of Facebook now includes around 40 companies.
The Facebook has also hit the big screen through "The Social Network" in October 2010. In May 2012, the company went public and began trading on Nasdaq. It joined the S&P 500 index last December. Despite al its success, a Princeton study has predicted the demise of Facebook but the company's data scientists did a counter-study that shows how Princeton is approaching the flatline.
What's next for Facebook
"Add the next billion. The idea of connecting the next billion users is really exciting," said Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.
The latest numbers reported by Facebook also draw its future. Its daily mobile daily active users in December 2013 rose to 556 million or about a 22 percent rise during the same month in 2012. The monthly active users on the mobile platform rose 39 percent to 945 million in December 2013 compared to the figures during the same month in 2012. Its mobile advertising revenue made up 53 percent of its total advertising revenue for Q4 of 2013.
"We're really at this point where we can take a step back and think about the next big things that we want to do," said Zuckerberg.
The company also recently formed the Facebook Creative Labs that allows teams within the company to be creative and develop standalone apps and other initiatives that are geared to innovate and improve user experience. The first project of the creative labs is the news reader app called Paper.
"We're still a small part of the world population," said Zuckerberg during its last investor call.
After Facebook blows the candles on its cake on Tuesday, it will be a busy, business-as-usual Wednesday for the social network to make sure Likes keep on coming. Life in the technology world is short for those who cannot keep up with what youngsters need and want.
Check out the interesting infographic below:
