How Did Facebook Originate?

Facebook is the name that some colleges give to a directory of students which has a photo included. The "Facebook" of today started with Mark Zuckerberg and has an interesting history.  

Facebook comes from “Facemash”, a site designed by Mark Zuckerberg to compare and rate photos of people. The site would randomly display two photos and the user would vote of the better looking of the two. Mark was a sophomore at Harvard University at the time, and it was a way to occupy his spare time. 

The story behind this story tells of Mark being dumped by a girl, getting drunk, and he began blogging to get his mind off of her. He said in his blog that his dormitory, or house, had a facebook and some of the pictures where so ugly that they could be compared to farm animals. Later, he blogged that he liked the idea of comparing two people, and so the idea for Facemash was born.

Facebook was a simple idea of comparing people for fun and entertainment. Mark put together the facebooks of nine dorms and the site, which started on October 28, 2003, became very popular almost instantly, with 450 visitors the first few hours and 22,000 views of photos.  If you are wondering where he got the photos, he hacked into the restricted areas of Harvard’s computers and copied them. Eventually, Harvard found out and charges were filed which included:

• Breach of security
• Privacy violations
• Copyright violations

All charges were later dropped.    

How Facebook Originated

The Facebook of today began on February 4, 2004. Mark had attended Phillips Exeter Academy, which published a student directory with head shots of the students and faculty that was called the "Facebook." That’s where he got the name for his website.

He decided that Harvard needed a facebook that would help students connect, and decided he was the man for the job. He got some help taking on this task from some friends: Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes.

Thefacebook.com was Harvard’s facebook, and by March of that year, was being used by around half of the undergraduates there. Soon it grew to include other universities in the Boston area.  

By the end of 2005, it was opened to high schools, and went out to the general public on the Internet the year after that. The only stipulation to be on it was to be over the age of 13. Also in 2005, the domain name “facebook.com” was purchased for $200,000. At that point, Mark’s hobby became a business.  

Rest of the Story

The business of running Facebook was formed by Zuckerberg and Moskovitz. They moved the operation to Palo Alto, California in the summer of 2004 and received financial assistance from PayPal co-founder Peter Theil.

In September, 2006, the Facebook site was open to anyone with an email address and who was over the age of 13. Since then, according to Bloomberg Businessweek in September 2010, Facebook has grown to over 550 million users. Other Facebook investors include Accel Partners and Greylock Partners.

In 2007, Microsoft invested $246 million for a 1.6% share. Later, a large investment was made by Li Ka-shing, a billionaire from Hong Kong. Yahoo! and Google tried to buy Facebook, but it was not for sale. Facebook also makes money from advertisers.  This way, you can use Facebook for free.

Facebook has grown in the number of features it offers. It has added more security and privacy features, a news feed, the ability to add photos to your blog or comments, and more. Time magazine called Mark Zuckerberg one of The World’s Most Influential People in 2008.