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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the social media service. For its owner, formerly known as
Facebook, Inc., see Meta Platforms.
Not to be confused with Face book or The World Factbook.

Facebook

Logo used since 2023

show
Screenshot

Type of site Social networking service

Available in 112 languages[1]

show
List of languages

Founded February 4, 2004; 20 years

ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

Area served Worldwide, except blocking countries

Owner Meta Platforms

 Mark Zuckerberg
Founder(s)
 Dustin Moskovitz
 Chris Hughes
 Andrew McCollum
 Eduardo Saverin

CEO Mark Zuckerberg

URL facebook.com

Registration Required (to do any activity)

Users 2.94 billion monthly active users

(as of 31 March 2022)[2]

Launched February 4, 2004; 20 years ago

Current status Active

Written in C++, Hack (as HHVM) and PHP

[3][4][5]

This article is part of a series about

Meta Platforms

 History
 Instagram
 WhatsApp
 Acquisitions

Products and services

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Facebook
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Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American
technology conglomerate Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four
other Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew
McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its name derives 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. Since 2006, Facebook allows everyone to register from 13 years old,
except in the case of a handful of nations, where the age limit is 14 years.[6] As of
December 2022, Facebook claimed almost 3 billion monthly active users.[7] As of
October 2023, Facebook ranked as the third-most-visited website in the world, with
22.56% of its traffic coming from the United States.[8][9] It was the most
downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.[10]

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 Messenger, join common-interest groups, and receive notifications on the
activities of their Facebook friends and the 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) and mass surveillance.[11] Facebook
has also been subject to criticism over psychological effects such as addiction and
low self-esteem, and various controversies over content such as fake
news, conspiracy theories, copyright infringement, and hate speech.
 Commentators have accused Facebook of willingly facilitating the spread of such
[12]

content, as well as exaggerating its number of users to appeal to advertisers.[13]

History
Further information: History of Facebook
2003–2006: Thefacebook, Thiel investment, and name change

Original layout and name of Thefacebook in

2004, showing Al Pacino's face superimposed with binary numbers as Facebook's original
logo, designed by co-founder Andrew McCollum[14]
Zuckerberg 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".[15] Facemash attracted 450 visitors and
22,000 photo-views in its first four hours.[16] 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.[15] Zuckerberg expanded on this project that semester by creating a social
study tool. He uploaded art images, each accompanied by a comments section, to a
website he shared with his classmates.[17]

A "face book" is a student directory featuring photos and personal information.[16] In

2003, Harvard had only a paper version[18] along with private online directories.[15]
[19]
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."[19] 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 ($1,613 in 2023 dollars[20]) in the site.[21] On
February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "TheFacebook", originally located at
thefacebook.com.[22]
 Mark Zuckerberg, co-creator of Facebook, in
his Harvard dorm room, 2005
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.[23] The three complained to the Crimson and the
newspaper began an investigation. They later sued Zuckerberg, settling in 2008[24] for
1.2 million shares (worth $300 million at Facebook's IPO, or $398 million in 2023
dollars[20]).[25]

Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College. Within a month,

more than half the undergraduates had registered.[26] Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew
McCollum, and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help manage the growth of the
website.[27] In March 2004, Facebook expanded to Columbia, Stanford and Yale.[28] It
then became available to all Ivy League colleges, Boston University, NYU, MIT, and
successively most universities in the United States and Canada.[29][30]

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

advisor to Zuckerberg—became company president.[31] In June 2004, the company
moved to Palo Alto, California.[32] Sean Parker called Reid Hoffman to fund
Facebook. However, Reid Hoffman was too busy launching LinkedIn so he set
Facebook up with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who gave Facebook its first
investment later that month.[33][34] In 2005, the company dropped "the" from its name
after purchasing the domain name Facebook.com for US$200,000 ($312,012 in
2023 dollars[20]).[35] The domain had belonged to AboutFace Corporation.

In May 2005, Accel Partners invested $12.7 million ($19.8 million in 2023 dollars[20])
in Facebook, and Jim Breyer[36] added $1 million ($1.56 million in 2023 dollars[20]) 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]