Mark Zuckerberg, 23, founded Facebook while studying psychology at 

Harvard University.
A keen computer programmer, Mr Zuckerberg had already developed a number of social-
networking websites for fellow students, including Coursematch, which allowed users to
view people taking their degree, and Facemash, where you could rate people's
attractiveness.

In February 2004 Mr Zuckerberg launched "The facebook", as it was originally known; the
name taken from the sheets of paper distributed to freshmen, profiling students and staff.
Within 24 hours, 1,200 Harvard students had signed up, and after one month, over half of
the undergraduate population had a profile.

The network was promptly extended to other Boston universities, the Ivy League and
eventually all US universities. It became Facebook.com in August 2005 after the address
was purchased for $200,000. US high schools could sign up from September 2005, then it
began to spread worldwide, reaching UK universities the following month.

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As of September 2006, the network was extended beyond educational institutions to

anyone with a registered email address. The site remains free to join, and makes a profit
through advertising revenue. Yahoo and Google are among companies which have
expressed interest in a buy-out, with rumoured figures of around $2bn (£975m) being
discussed. Mr Zuckerberg has so far refused to sell.

The site's features have continued to develop during 2007. Users can now give gifts to
friends, post free classified advertisements and even develop their own applications -
graffiti and Scrabble are particularly popular.

This month the company announced that the number of registered users had reached 30
million, making it the largest social-networking site with an education focus.

Earlier in the year there were rumours that Prince William had registered, but it was later
revealed to be a mere impostor. The MP David Miliband, the radio DJ Jo Whiley, the actor
Orlando Bloom, the artist Tracey Emin and the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, are
among confirmed high-profile members.

This month officials banned a flash-mob-style water fight in Hyde Park, organised through
Facebook, due to public safety fears. And there was further controversy at Oxford as
students became aware that university authorities were checking their Facebook profiles.

The legal case against Facebook dates back to September 2004, when Divya Narendra, and
the brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who founded the social-networking site
ConnectU, accused Mr Zuckerberg of copying their ideas and coding. Mr Zuckerberg had
worked as a computer programmer for them when they were all at Harvard before
Facebook was created.

The case was dismissed due to a technicality in March 2007 but without a ruling.

Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service owned

by Facebook, Inc.

Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and

roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its
name comes from the face book directories often given to American university students.
Membership was initially limited to Harvard students, gradually expanding to other North
American universities and, since 2006, anyone over 13 years old. As of 2020, Facebook
claimed 2.8 billion monthly active users,[2] and ranked seventh in global internet usage. [7] It
was the most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.[8]

Facebook can be accessed from devices with Internet connectivity, such as personal

computers, tablets and smartphones. After registering, users can create a profile revealing
information about themselves. They can post text, photos and multimedia which are shared
with any other users who have agreed to be their "friend" or, with different privacy
settings, publicly. Users can also communicate directly with each other with Facebook
Messenger, join common-interest groups, and receive notifications on the activities of their
Facebook friends and pages they follow.
The subject of numerous controversies, Facebook has often been criticized over issues such
as user privacy (as with the Cambridge Analytica data scandal), political manipulation (as
with the 2016 U.S. elections), mass surveillance,[9] psychological effects such
as addiction and low self-esteem, and content such as fake news, conspiracy
theories, copyright infringement, and hate speech.[10] Commentators have accused
Facebook of willingly facilitating the spread of such content, [11][12][13][14] as well as
exaggerating its number of users to appeal to advertisers.[

uckerberg built a website called "Facemash" in 2003 while attending Harvard University.

The site was comparable to Hot or Not and used "photos compiled from the online face
books of nine Houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose
the "hotter" person".[17] Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first
four hours.[18] The site was sent to several campus group listservs, but was shut down a few
days later by Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged with
breaching security, violating copyrights and violating individual privacy. Ultimately, the
charges were dropped.[17] Zuckerberg expanded on this project that semester by creating a
social study tool ahead of an art history final exam. He uploaded all art images to a website,
each of which was accompanied by a comments section, then shared the site with his
classmates.[19]

A "face book" is a student directory featuring photos and personal information. [18] In 2003,
Harvard had only a paper version [20] along with private online directories. [17][21] Zuckerberg
told The Harvard Crimson, "Everyone's been talking a lot about a universal face book within
Harvard. ... I think it's kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get
around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week." [21] In January 2004,
Zuckerberg coded a new website, known as "TheFacebook", inspired by a Crimson editorial
about Facemash, stating, "It is clear that the technology needed to create a centralized
Website is readily available ... the benefits are many." Zuckerberg met with Harvard
student Eduardo Saverin, and each of them agreed to invest $1,000 in the site. [22] On
February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "TheFacebook", originally located at
thefacebook.com.[23]
Six days after the site launched, Harvard seniors Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss,
and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing
that he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com. They
claimed that he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product. [24] The three
complained to the Crimson and the newspaper began an investigation. They later sued
Zuckerberg, settling in 2008[25] for 1.2 million shares (worth $300 million at
Facebook's IPO).[26]

Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College. Within a month, more
than half the undergraduates had registered. [27] Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum,
and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help manage the growth of the website. [28] In March
2004, Facebook expanded to Columbia, Stanford and Yale.[29] It then became available to
all Ivy League colleges, Boston University, NYU, MIT, and successively most universities in
the United States and Canada.[30][31]

In mid-2004, Napster co-founder and entrepreneur Sean Parker—an informal advisor to

Zuckerberg—became company president.[32] In June 2004, the company moved to Palo Alto,
California.[33] It received its first investment later that month from PayPal co-founder Peter
Thiel.[34] In 2005, the company dropped "the" from its name after purchasing the domain
name Facebook.com for US$200,000.[35] The domain had belonged to AboutFace
Corporation.

In May 2005, Accel Partners invested $12.7 million in Facebook, and Jim Breyer[36] added

$1 million of his own money. A high-school version of the site launched in September 2005.
[37]
 Eligibility expanded to include employees of several companies, including Apple
Inc. and Microsoft.[38]

2006–2012: Public access, Microsoft alliance, and rapid growth

In May 2006, Facebook hired its first intern, Julie Zhuo.[39] After a month, Zhuo was hired as
a full-time engineer.[39] On September 26, 2006, Facebook opened to everyone at least 13
years old with a valid email address.[40][41][42] By late 2007, Facebook had 100,000 pages on
which companies promoted themselves.[43] Organization pages began rolling out in May
2009.[44] On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of
Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion.
Microsoft's purchase included rights to place international advertisements. [45][46]

In May 2007, at the first f8 developers conference, Facebook announced the launch of
the Facebook Developer Platform, providing a framework for software developers to
create applications that interact with core Facebook features. By the second annual
f8 developers conference on July 23, 2008, the number of applications on the platform had
grown to 33,000, and the number of registered developers had exceeded 400,000. [47]

In October 2008, Facebook announced that its international headquarters would locate
in Dublin, Ireland.[48] In September 2009, Facebook said that it had achieved positive cash
flow for the first time.[49] A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook the most
used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users.[50] China blocked
Facebook in 2009 following the Ü rü mqi riots.[51]

The company announced 500 million users in July 2010. [52] Half of the site's membership
used Facebook daily, for an average of 34 minutes, while 150 million users accessed the
site from mobile devices. A company representative called the milestone a "quiet
revolution."[53] In October 2010 groups are introduced. [54] In November 2010, based
on SecondMarket Inc. (an exchange for privately held companies' shares), Facebook's value
was $41 billion. The company had slightly surpassed eBay to become the third largest
American web company after Google and Amazon.com.[55][56]

On November 15, 2010, Facebook announced it had acquired the domain name fb.com from
the American Farm Bureau Federation for an undisclosed amount. On January 11, 2011, the
Farm Bureau disclosed $8.5 million in "domain sales income", making the acquisition of
FB.com one of the ten highest domain sales in history. [57]

In February 2011, Facebook announced plans to move its headquarters to the former Sun
Microsystems campus in Menlo Park, California. [58][59] In March 2011, it was reported that
Facebook was removing about 20,000 profiles daily for violations such as spam, graphic
content and underage use, as part of its efforts to boost cyber security.[60] Statistics showed
that Facebook reached one trillion page views in the month of June 2011, making it the
most visited website tracked by DoubleClick.[61][62] According to a Nielsen study, Facebook
had in 2011 become the second-most accessed website in the U.S. behind Google.[63][64]