*Meta: A Story Of The Social Media Blue Whale*

[Humble beginnings]

Sometimes, a super cool idea pops up and changes the world. This is a story about one of those ideas.
It started as a fun trick in a college room and grew into a giant business called Meta that lets more
than 3 billion people talk to each other.

This big company grew super fast, had lots of problems, and always wanted to do new things like
creating a virtual world. This story shows how people can make amazing things but also make
mistakes, like not caring about others' secrets. It's a story that will be remembered for a long time.

Let's go back to 2003, at Harvard University, where smart students had big dreams. One of them was
a 19-year-old guy named Mark Zuckerberg. He was a little shy but really good at computer stuff.

Mark was famous at Harvard for being great at making computer programs and for playing fun
computer tricks. He really wanted to make something that everyone would notice and that would get
super popular super fast.

He didn't know that a small project he was working on would start something huge. It would change
the way people make friends, share things, and talk to each other in ways no one had ever thought of
before.

Big things often start with something small. For Mark, it was a website he made for fun called
"FaceMash."

What it did was sneak into Harvard's picture records and take student photos without asking. Then it
put two photos next to each other on the internet and let people vote on who looked better.

It might seem weird and wrong now, but back then, when the internet was like the wild west, it
seemed like just another silly trick.

But it wasn't just a trick. FaceMash made a lot of people at Harvard really upset. It felt mean and old-
fashioned to have your photo put online for others to judge without your okay.

Even more important, FaceMash broke important rules about keeping personal stuff private. It used
university records that were supposed to be safe and private. This wasn't just any trick; it was done by
a student who went too far.

In just 4 hours after it started late at night, FaceMash became super popular. It caused so much
internet traffic that it crashed Harvard's computer system because so many students wanted to see
and vote on the photos.

The people who took care of Harvard's computers were really mad about the mess and the trouble it
caused. They brought Mark in to talk about what he did. He could have been kicked out of Harvard for
good, which would have been a huge problem for his future.

Imagine being in big trouble at school—that's how Mark Zuckerberg felt when his computer trick
caused a stir. But even though he was in hot water, he learned something important.

You see, his website FaceMash got really popular really fast, and it showed Mark that people love to
learn about others, even people they don't know.

FaceMash let people peek into others' lives in a not-so-nice way. But Mark thought, what if there was
a better way? A way for people to share about themselves on purpose, with friends and family in a
safe place online.
What if there was a website where you could tell your own story, share your photos, and connect
with others, but all in a nice way? That's when he got the idea for Facebook.

[The Facebook Journey Begins]

"I really want to make something huge that changes the world," Mark said in 2004.

Thinking about this, he worked super hard to make a simple version of his big idea. He called it "The
Facebook," kind of like the paper books at Harvard that had everyone's face and name to help
students know each other.

It began as a simple website where Harvard students could put up their photo and some info about
themselves. Then, other students could become friends with them.

At the start, not many people joined because Mark had to add everyone's info himself. But when he
let students add their own, over 1,200 joined in just one day! In a month, more than half of the
students had made their own Facebook pages.

Back then, The Facebook was really simple but super cool. It was a new way for people to show who
they are online and make friends.

Soon, students at other colleges wanted to join. It started with big schools like Stanford and Yale, and
then it spread everywhere. By the end of the year, over 1 million students had joined, and it kept
getting bigger.

Let's pretend we could go back and see The Facebook when it first started:

→ It looked really plain. There was no newsfeed, no fancy profiles or big cover photos. Just a basic
page with small pictures.

→ You couldn't do much except look at other people's pages. There was no way to post updates,
share videos, or chat like we can today.

→ In the beginning, only college students could use The Facebook. You needed a special college email
to get in. If you weren't at a college that was allowed to join, you couldn't use it.

→ Back then, there were no rules about keeping your page private. Anyone from your college could
see everything on your profile, even if they weren't your friend.

→ There were no ads or ways to make money on The Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg and his friends
worked on it all the time because they loved it, not to get rich.

Even though it was so simple, college students were crazy about The Facebook. It was like nothing
else on the internet. Instead of being anonymous, students could show who they really were and
connect with friends in a new way.

When something gets really popular, there are often fights about who thought of it first. That
happened with The Facebook, too.

Do you remember a movie called "The Social Network" from 2010? It showed some big arguments in
court about whether Mark Zuckerberg took the idea for Facebook from other students at Harvard.

Actually, those students had made a website called ConnectU. They said it was for dating and making
friends at college. When The Facebook became a hit, they said Mark stole their ideas and code.

They fought in court for a long time, trying to get a lot of money and even part of Facebook. Mark said
they just wanted his money, but it looked like he hadn't been completely honest with them. Still,
Facebook had a lot of cool things that ConnectU didn't, like sharing news, photos, and more.
[Facebook For The Mass]
Despite the fights, The Facebook kept getting more and more popular. It wasn't just for colleges
anymore. High schools, companies, and then anyone could join.

In 2006, they dropped "The" from the name, and it was just "Facebook." Now, anyone older than 13
with an email could sign up. So many people joined that Mark had to work all night to keep the
website running!

Facebook became something that everyone, everywhere used. By 2023, almost 3 billion people were
using Facebook and its other apps like Instagram and WhatsApp.

If you tried to count all of Facebook's users one by one, it would take you 348 years without stopping!
Every day, people send 200 billion messages, likes, and comments on Facebook and its other apps.

That's why Facebook was one of the most visited websites for ten years. It changed how we think
about sharing things online, making friends, and keeping our information private.

[Why Can't We Stop Checking Facebook?]

We know that Facebook started small and grew to have 3 billion users. But why do so many people
check it all the time?

Experts say Facebook has some tricks that make us want to keep coming back:

➤ Every time we get a like or a comment, it makes us feel good, so we want to keep checking for
more.

➤ Seeing all the fun things our friends are doing can make us feel like we're missing out if we don't
look.

➤ It's easy to take a quick look at Facebook when we're doing other things, which makes us want to
check it often.

➤ Even doing small things like liking a picture or writing a short comment makes us feel like we're
part of something.

➤ The more we add to our Facebook page, the more we want to come back to it.

All these things made Facebook really hard to resist for people everywhere.

[Printing Billions!!!]
There was a big argument inside Facebook about whether to keep users' information private or use it
to make money. In the end, they decided to use the information to sell ads.

Google and Microsoft tried to make their own social networks, but they weren't as successful as
Facebook. Why? Because Facebook had a lot of detailed information about its users.

Facebook asked people to share a lot about themselves, like their thoughts, pictures, and what they
liked. This made Facebook very valuable for businesses that wanted to sell things. They could show
ads that were just right for each person, which was much better than the old way of advertising on TV
or in newspapers.

Facebook found a new way to get people's attention by mixing interesting posts with ads. They could
show ads to very specific groups of people based on what they like, where they work, where they live,
and important things happening in their lives.
Basically, Facebook learned a lot about everyone and used that info to show them ads that they
would care about. Instead of trying to talk to everyone at once, businesses could talk to just the right
people at just the right time.

Companies started spending more money on ads on Facebook because they could reach the right
people. This made Facebook a lot of money. After 8 years, they started making a profit, and the
money kept coming in:

- In 2012, they made $5 billion from ads.

- In 2013, it was $7.9 billion.
- In 2014, $12.5 billion.
- In 2015, $17.9 billion.
- By 2021, they made $117 billion, with almost all of it from ads!

What started as a simple website made in a college room turned into one of the biggest businesses in
the world.

Mark Zuckerberg became super rich because of Facebook. He was only 23 when he became a
billionaire, and by 2015, he was worth over $85 billion!

[Not Free From Challenges]

But having so much power made people worry. They weren't sure if it was okay for Facebook to know
so much about them. In the 2010s, people started to feel uneasy about how Facebook could track
everything they did online and use it for ads.

People didn't like the idea of being watched all the time by big computer systems that knew
everything about them. Facebook said they were clear about what they were doing, but people still
felt like their privacy was being invaded.

When people found out just how much Facebook knew about them to make money, they got upset.
The biggest problem happened in 2018 with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where Facebook let a
company use people's data in ways they shouldn't have, like trying to change how people think about
politics.

The big social network said it didn't know that some online games were taking information from 87
million people. This info was sold to companies that make ads for politicians, like Cambridge
Analytica. They used this info to make fake news and target very specific ads at people during the
2016 US elections. This made people all over the world angry and worried about how companies
watch what we do online and spread lies on social media.

Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook, had to explain himself to the US government. He got in
trouble because Facebook didn't protect people's private info, let others mess with elections, and
cared more about making money than keeping users safe.

Facebook also had problems with mean words, hurting kids, selling people, and showing violence.
They couldn't stop these bad things from spreading because they didn't check what was posted well
enough.

Even though Zuckerberg said sorry and promised to fix things, people didn't trust Facebook anymore.
They felt tricked by ads that watched them all the time and made them fight over different ideas just
to make money for the company.

If too many people stopped using Facebook because they didn't trust it and felt watched, the whole
company could fail. Facebook, which was supposed to bring people together, was now making them
fight and feel bad.
[From Facebook to Meta]
Zuckerberg was worried and decided to change Facebook's way of doing business. On October 28,
2021, he shared his big plan to create a new world called the "Metaverse" where people could use
special glasses to go into a 3D internet for work, fun, shopping, and talking to friends.

With this new goal and changing the company's name to "Meta," Zuckerberg wanted to make new
tools like VR headsets and AR glasses. These would let people go into these 3D worlds without having
to travel.

Zuckerberg said, "You can be a hologram and go to work, a concert, or visit your family right away."
He wanted to change how people saw Facebook and make the internet even cooler.

So, Facebook changed its name to Meta to leave behind all the bad stuff and start fresh as the leader
of this new Metaverse, where people could do amazing things.

They planned to spend over $10 billion every year to make this virtual world feel real, with lifelike
characters and tools to feel like you're really there. They hired 10,000 new people to help make
Zuckerberg's big dream come true.

People who give money to big projects were happy at first with the big changes, even though it cost a
lot of money. They believed in Zuckerberg because his big ideas had worked before with computers,
phones, and smart machines.

But making a whole new online world called the Metaverse wasn't easy.

From 2022 to 2023, Meta tried to make this Metaverse, but it was really hard. Zuckerberg didn't
expect it to be so tough to make a perfect virtual world without problems like feeling sick from
moving in it, getting tired of wearing the special glasses, or computers not being strong enough.

Even though they showed cool demos, like drawing on a virtual whiteboard, making the Metaverse
real was harder than they thought. They had to make their dream smaller because technology isn't
ready to make a virtual world as good as the real one.

Also, the economy was bad, and companies had to let go of many workers. People who invested
money in Meta were worried because it was spending a lot of money on the Metaverse, and they
weren't sure it would work.

To make investors happy, Meta had to fire a lot of people and stop working on some things that
weren't so important. This meant they couldn't do everything they wanted with the Metaverse.

The biggest problem was that Facebook and Instagram stopped growing. People didn't like how hard
it was to use them, especially when they were changing everything for the Metaverse. Young people
started using other apps like TikTok and Snapchat, which were more fun.

Zuckerberg had to act fast to fix Meta's problems and deal with the government asking if it was fair
for Meta to control the new virtual world.

Meta had a lot of problems, but then something big happened. New smart machines came out that
could do amazing things, like making up stories and creating new worlds.

Zuckerberg decided to use these smart machines to help build the Metaverse. He said that these
machines would make it easier and cheaper to make the Metaverse real.

"We can use these smart machines to make virtual worlds, things, and people that look and move like
real ones," Zuckerberg told everyone. "Now we can make the Metaverse even more exciting and
real."
Meta used new computer programs to make building their virtual world faster. They made:

- 3D models and places for the virtual world

- Virtual people move and act real just by typing what they should do
- Computer helpers and workers for virtual offices
- Better looking pictures and sounds for the virtual world

They also worked on making virtual people act more like real people, not just repeating the same
things. They thought about having a whole little world inside the Metaverse where these computer-
made people could act like real citizens and workers.

Meta wanted to make the Metaverse quickly and on a big scale. They started hiring people who are
good at using these new computer programs to make this happen.

Meta hoped these computer programs would help them be the first to make this big new virtual
world. They wanted to be better than other big companies.

But using these computer programs brought up new questions about what's right and wrong. People
worried if the virtual world would have problems like the real world, like unfairness or bad ideas.

So, Meta worked hard to make sure their virtual world was a good place. They used famous people's
voices and looks to make safe virtual people instead of making them up from nothing. They also made
sure they didn't use things that other people made without permission.

Even with these steps, there were still worries about keeping the virtual world safe and fair, especially
for kids. Meta knew they had to be careful with every new thing they added to the Metaverse.

Even though building the Metaverse was getting really complicated, Meta kept trying. They wanted to
make a perfect virtual world like they had promised. Zuckerberg had to prove that Meta could be
trusted to run a big, open virtual world after people were worried about how they handled private
information.

Meta had a few different ways they could make the Metaverse:

One way was to keep spending a lot of money to make their virtual world the best with new
technology. They wanted to make cool glasses and tools that would let people feel like they were
really inside a digital world like in movies "Ready Player One" and "The Matrix." But this could take a
long time and cost too much money, which could be risky if the Metaverse took too long to finish.

Another way was for Meta to help other people and companies make their own Metaverse stuff by
sharing tools and rules. This would make it easier for everyone to work together on the Metaverse,
and Meta wouldn't have to pay for everything. But this meant they might lose some control to other
big companies that were also making virtual worlds.

Meta could also use their new smart machines to build the whole Metaverse by themselves. These
machines could make huge virtual places and stories just by following simple instructions. This could
save a lot of money, but it depended on having really advanced technology that isn't quite ready yet.
And there could be unexpected problems if the machines didn't work right.

Lastly, Meta thought about buying other companies that were good at making virtual worlds or had
technology that could help. This could be a fast way to get better at building the Metaverse, but it
would cost a lot of money and they might have to compete with other big companies.

Each choice had its own risks and benefits, and Meta had to decide what was most important: being
in control, working with others, or trying to be the first and best at making the Metaverse.
Zuckerberg, who started Facebook in college, is at a big turning point. He's trying to mix our online
and real lives, even though it's been tough.

[The Lessons]

It's too soon to say how Zuckerberg's chase for the Metaverse will end. But we can learn a lot from
Meta's journey, which has pushed the limits of how we connect and live online.

- Being at the right place at the right time is key, but big dreams can change the game. In 2003,
Zuckerberg saw that we were starting to live more online. Facebook showed that big things happen
when someone really wants to make a change at just the right moment. Big steps in tech, like social
media and virtual worlds, start with someone dreaming big and trying new things.
- Big changes start with new ideas. Facebook changed how we think about who we are and who we
know. It made it normal to have our lives online, which changed things a lot, both in good and bad
ways.
- Fast growth can cause big problems. Facebook grew so fast that it was hard for laws and safety rules
to keep up. Problems like the Cambridge Analytica scandal showed that the rules inside and outside
the company weren't strong enough.
- Choices in tech can have long-term effects. Meta's past shows that the tech we build can have big,
lasting impacts that we didn't expect. Decisions that seemed small at the time can end up changing a
lot of things for a lot of people.
- You have to keep changing to keep up. As we live more online, we have to keep changing who we
are to move past old mistakes. Facebook changing to Meta is an example of how companies can try to
start fresh when they've had problems.
- Meta's big test is to guide the Metaverse the right way. If they're not careful, the Metaverse could
become a scary place where everything is watched and controlled. But Meta has a chance to do things
better this time.

Zuckerberg's big project, Meta, keeps changing to help bring our digital and real lives together. Will it
help us connect better, or will old problems show up in new ways in the virtual worlds we're making?
We'll have to wait and see how this story unfolds.

[The End]

Okay. So, our Facebook case study is completed. Now, I have a small assignment for you that will only
take 10 minutes to complete. Complete the assignment, take a photo of it, and send it to this
Instagram account: @august.tech. The best answer gets a chance to win exciting prizes. So, Please
pause here and write your answer to this question in your notebook.

Our next video will be a case study on the biggest beverage company in the world Coca Cola, so make
sure to be prepared for the next episode. That was it for today, and I will see you in the next one. Till
then, take care. Bye bye.

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1.

Although Facebook has been in the social media business for almost two decades now, how do you
think TikTok, which is less than a decade old company, was able to make it soo big, and compete
against Facebook (Meta) in the same market. Mention 5 reasons.

2.
If you were Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Meta), what changes would you make in Meta Platforms
(Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp)? Write in 5 points.