Nearly 40 percent of the world’s total population—more than 3 billion people—uses Facebook each month, and of those, 2.11 billion log into Facebook every day. As ubiquitous as Facebook is in contemporary society, it’s incredible to think that just 20 years ago, on Dec. 30, 2004, Facebook was celebrating its one-millionth user as a service exclusive to college students. Learn more in this edition of Tech Time Warp.
From Facemash to global phenomenon
For those who haven’t seen the 2010 movie The Social Network (which was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress just this month), here’s a quick review of Facebook’s origin story. In 2003, Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg ran afoul of university administration when he created the short-lived website Facemash, which asked users to vote on which of two randomly selected Harvard female students was the most attractive. (“I understood that some parts were still a little sketchy,” Zuckerberg admitted to student newspaper The Crimson after taking the site down.)
Despite his run-in with Harvard admin, Zuckerberg recognized the potential for a university-wide social network. He then created an opt-in platform called The Facebook. Within 24 hours of its Feb. 4, 2004, launch, The Facebook had more than 1,000 users. By Dec. 30, The Facebook had expanded to other Boston-area and Ivy League schools and attracted the attention of angel investor Peter Thiel. With Thiel’s $500,000 investment, Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard and moved to Palo Alto to open the company’s new headquarters. In 2005, The Facebook dropped the “The,” and the rest was built one poke and like at a time. Today, nearly 3.2 billion people log in to a Meta-owned service each day, whether Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or WhatsApp.
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Photo: grinvalds / Shutterstock
This post originally appeared on Smarter MSP.
