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Facemash Launch
Mark Zuckerberg released Facemash during his sophomore year. It was very similar to the "Hot or Not" application that ran through facebook some years back. He hacked into the Harvard system and copied students' ID images. This, however, led him to shut down the website because of a breach of security and violation of privacy. The website has been recreated a couple years ago.
Facemash Recreation 2010 -
TheFacebook release
Facebook website The social networking website was launched early 2004 and is today owned by Facebook, Inc. It has around 900 million users, half of them using their mobile phones to access the service. The main idea is to create a personal profile, where you upload pictures, interests and hobbies and share them with your friends and family. The founders, Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz were all Harvard students. -
theFacebook expansion and first lawsuit
The popularity of the site among Harvard students increased, and it soon expanded to other Ivy League Universities in order to gain connections. However, the Winklevoss twins and Divya Narendra, creating "The Harvard Connection", accused Zuckerberg of lying, telling them he would work with them, and stealing ideas for his own site. The lawsuit was filed and it was settled further on. -
New president and moving out
theFacebook's success was uncanny, and they soon realized that there was more to come. Zuckerberg's advisor Sean Parker was named president of the company. Therefore, the entire Facebook team moved to Palo Alto, California; the home to technology advancements. -
PayPal Investment
PayPal president Peter Thiel made the first investment in Facebook -
theFacebook name change and launch of a high school version.
theFacebook became Facebook after dropping the "The" for $200.000. Right after the name change, Facebook decided to release a high school version that required an invitation. This then expanded to bigger companies. -
Facebook opens to everyone!
Facebook opens to everyone older than 13 and with a valid e-mail address. This, however, proved to be a problem later on. -
Microsoft buys 1.6%
Bill Gates Microsoft purchases 1.6% of Facebook shares for $240 million, giving Zuckerberg's company a value of $15 billion. This meant that Facebook would soon include advertising in its pages. -
Dublin Headquarters
The company decides that it will set up International headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. By this time, it had already 100 million users and a monthly growth of 178.38%. -
Cash-flow positive!
Facebook declares it has become cash-flow positive for the first time with 200 million users and a growth rate of 13.33%. -
Its shares go viral!
Facebook, according to SecondMarket Inc., the share exchange, is valued in $41 billion, becoming the 3rd largest U.S. company after Google and Amazon -
Exponential growth
By the end of the year, Facebook had already 500 million users. It had more visits than Google! -
Facebook necessity
Facebook says to remove 20.000 profiles due to spam, reporting and underage use. This is a way to ensure security through out the website. At the same time, the company decides to move its headquarters from Palo Alto to Menlo Park in California. It was growing rapidly, receiving more than a trillion visits a day -
App Center
Facebook announces the release of App Center, which is a store of Apps that connect to Facebook. It will be available for any type of smartphone. -
Facebook buys Instagram
Instagram has become the artsy application for those who love photography - in an easy two-step process. Facebook recognized its popularity and decided to buy it for $1 billion -
The downfall
The company decides to buy the social discovery start-up company Glancee as it held an IPO with $38 a piece. The company was then valued at $104 billion. However, the IPO peaked!
