Feb 4th 2004, this day on which Facebook was launched will be remembered ever by this world. Now it's celebrating 10th birthday on a high. Today Facebook is the second most visited site in the world after Google. It has 1.25 billion active members every month – this is roughly equals to one sixth of the human population.
Started by Mark Zuckerberg in Harvard dorm room as thefacebook.com, 10 years later the world has experienced revolutionary changes in social networking and the way we communicate through Facebook.
Clebrating Facebook's 10th anniversary, let's have glance at it's trend story right from it's launching to emerging as the No.1 social site in the world.
2004: Launched at Harvard
On Feb. 4th 2004, Mark Zuckerberg along with Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz started Facebook as thefacebook.com.
In early days it was made available only to the students of Harvard University. Soon, it started allowing students from other colleges in Boston area to join.
2005: Expansion to UK
On October 1, 2005, Facebook expanded to twenty-one universities in the United Kingdom. Facebook launched a high school version. At that time, high school networks required an invitation to join. After that Facebook expanded its membership to employees of several companies.
On Dec. 11 2005, universities in Australia and New Zealand were added to Facebook network. By the end of the year, Facebook has 2000+ colleges and 25,000+ high schools.
2006: Allowing people of 13 and up to sign up
Facebook then opened its doors on September 26, 2006 to everyone who ages 13 and above with a valid e-mail address.
2007: 100,000 business pages
By 2007, Facebook had over 100,000 business pages and allowed companies to tell about their potentials to the customers. This is initially started as group pages which is now planned as company pages.
2008: 100 million users
Facebook passes 100 million users and announced that it would setup its headquarters at Dublin, Ireland.
2009: "Like" Button
In February 2009, Facebook introduced 'Like' button which allowed users to like the status, pics and videos shared by their friends. Also it introduced 'News Feed' feature that shows the users their friends' updates in one mian page.
In May, the number of Facebook users crossed the number of users of MySpace.
Later in Spetember, New Oxford American Dictionary announced "unfiend" as its word of the year.
2010: Inviting users for beta testing
In 2010, Facebook began to invite users to become beta testers after passing a question-and-answer-based selection process.
Facebook adds Places feature letting people to connect to real world locations.
2011: Largest photo album
Facebook becomes the host of largest photo album in the world with 100 billion photos.
In september 2011, Facebook introduced new Timeline feature.
2012: Purchases Instagram
Facebook purchased Instagram for $715 million in cash and stock.
Also in may 2012, Facebook goes public. At the initial public offering, stock is priced at $38.
Mark Zuckerberg married long term girlfriend Priscilla Chan in 2010 on May 19th.
Mark Zuckerberg married long term girlfriend Priscilla Chan in 2010 on May 19th.
Later in October 2012, Facebook passses 1 billion users.
2013: Mobile users crosses PC users
The number of users viewing Facebook through mobile devices surpasses those viewing Facebook through desktop computers.
Future Predictions.....
Right now Facebook is the No.1 social networking site and the most visited site after Google. But the future is somewhat disgusting as experts comments that more than 80% of present users are expected to leave Fcebook by 2017.
Pundits say that Facebook has lost three million teenage users since
2011. Also the number of older users has soared.
Other social sites such as Snapchat and Tumblr are enjoying a great popularity with younger surfers throwing a challenge to Facebook's survival in coming years. So, let's see, just wait and watch how this miraculous social networking site would get through the competition.
Anyway, it's party time, we 'The Wiki Tech' wishes Facebook a very happy 10th anniversary.
