A Brief History of Facebook

Facebook - Then and Now

It is difficult for most people today to imagine the Internet without the all-encompassing presence of Facebook. In just a few short years, Facebook has transformed from relative obscurity to a Website that is considered one of the most popular in the world. In fact, the Internet ranking system Alexa considers Facebook to be the second most visited website. Only Google now generates more traffic than the ever-growing Facebook.


Much of the Facebook’s success can be traced to the fact that it was seen as an alternative to such other social networking sites like MySpace. For those seeking an alternative, Facebook was a natural solution. There were numerous reasons that people were eager to switch over from MySpace. Facebook offered a smooth and organized interface, as opposed to MySpace, which many users found to be visually unappealing. Also Facebook tended to appeal more to adults: whereas, MySpace had the reputation of being for younger people.



Facebook was the brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg who developed the concept while at Harvard. In fact, the Facebook concept developed out of an early concept called Facemash. The Facemash concept was designed so that users could rank the attractiveness level of fellow Harvard students. However, in order to accomplish this feat, Zuckerberg illegally accessed Harvard’s computer network and took the necessary images.


Facemash was an overnight success. Yet, once Harvard officials discovered the site they immediate shut it down. Quite amazingly, all legal charges were dropped against Zuckerberg who also was given permission to remain a student at Harvard.


Zuckerberg, however, now knew that he was onto something and believed that his concept could be expanded. By early 2004, Zuckerberg was hard at work developing what would be called “thefacebook.” Thefacebook.com was launched by February 2004. Thanks in part to the word of mouth, news of the new website spread quickly throughout the Harvard student body.

Soon thefacebook had expanded to other colleges and universities. In fact, it is safe to state that the speed at which Facebook’s presence expanded in 2004 was quite remarkable.


Just a year later, Facebook was incorporated. Sean Parker was named as the company’s president, and operations were relocated to Palo Alto, California. Originally Parker was simply an adviser for Zuckerman, but as the site progressed, he brought his expertise on full-time as the company’s president. Sean Parker was a cofounder of the once highly popular music site, Napster. As a result of his time with Napster, Parker was very familiar with all things Internet and was quick to see the potential of Facebook.


Almost from the beginning, Facebook has been engulfed in lawsuits of various sorts. One high profile example comes from several Zuckerberg classmates who claimed to have had a hand in the development of the site. They claim that Zuckerberg stole their concept and violated a verbal agreement. There are reports that a settlement was reached between the parties.


Restricted access was a major part of the initial Facebook concept. While the website was still called thefacebook, as it wasn’t until 2005 that the Facebook.com domain was obtained, access was restricted to a handful of Ivy League universities. Slowly, more universities were allowed into the social networking site. Eventually a few of America’s largest companies such as Microsoft were included.


By May 2005, major press outlets such as the New York Times had begun to take serious notice of Facebook, running a promotional piece for the website stating, “The site is becoming ubiquitous at the 840 colleges where it is available.” By the time this New York Times article was written in 2005, Facebook had already had over 2.8 million registered users located throughout over 800 college campuses.


It was not until the fall of 2006, that the average person could join Facebook. Since that time, Facebook has nearly taken over the Internet and now dominates the social networking scene. Today, Facebook dominates social networking on the web with some notable exceptions. For example, there are regional exceptions as exemplified by Orkut in Brazil and Hyves in The Netherlands, among many others. Yet, there is no denying that Facebook is the dominant player in the global social networking game.


Facebook has had very little trouble finding funding over the years. Zuckerberg’s creation received its first major investor in the form of Internet giant Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal, who invested in Facebook in 2004. Since that time, Facebook has enjoyed a constant stream of investment.


The website’s actual value is clearly in the billions. Facebook walked away from a $1 billion dollar deal with Yahoo! in 2006. There have been rumors of additional negotiations with other parties that may have reached far higher offering prices. In fact, Forbes Magazine pointed out in December 2009 that estimates have determined that Facebook is worth about $11 billion. This figure is based on the amount of money that people are willing to pay for shares of the company.


By June of 2009, Facebook had done what would have initially seemed to be impossible; it had bested MySpace. MySpace was once the dominant player in social networking and had the muscle of Rupert Murdoch behind it. By 2009, reports were that Facebook had passed MySpace for total users. In fact, in June 2009, The Los Angeles Times wrote an article called “Facebook Dethrones MySpace in the US” which stated, “The Palo Alto, Calif., company had 70.28 million users last month, topping MySpace’s 70.26 million, ComScore said. Facebook’s users almost doubled from a year earlier, while MySpace lost 5%.” This trend of users leaving MySpace and switching to Facebook continues to this day.


What does the future of the site hold? Increasingly, there are concerns that Facebook may not be handling users privacy in an appropriate manner. A May 19, 2010 article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Facebook Grapples with Privacy Issues” pointed out this growing concern. The article’s writer Jessica E. Vascellaro noted that people are becoming increasingly concerned about Facebook and its perception of privacy due to “embarrassing technical glitches that exposed personal data.” This article goes on to state, “The site’s privacy travails have rattled Facebook employees and put pressure on Mr. Zuckerberg, who has argued for years that its users should be more open with their information.”


Will these concerns over lack of privacy be the undoing of Facebook? This is impossible to say. But there is no denying this website’s growing power. Currently, the site has a half a billion registered members and is still growing on a day-to-day basis.

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