Facebook's history, the company's value, and the facts behind the social media giant's success
lovemoney staff
01 February 2019
How Facebook took over
Despite data sharing scandals and its CEO having to face US Congress in April 2018, days before its 15th anniversary Facebook revealed that it has seen monthly active users increase to 2.32 billion worldwide. Not only that but the social media giant saw its revenues hit $55.8 billion (£42.7bn) in 2018, up a mighty 37% on 2017. We take a look at the timeline of one of the biggest tech success story of recent times.
It all started in a dorm room
The social media giant had humble beginnings. It was created in a Harvard University dorm room in 2004 by friends Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes and was originally called Thefacebook.com.
The first attempt
But Facebook wasn’t Zuckerberg’s first site. In 2003 he created Facemash, which listed pictures of Harvard students in a 'hot or not' type format. This didn’t take off, and got him in trouble with his university.
What colour is that?
The Facebook logo is blue because Zuckerberg is colour blind and blue is the hue he can see best.
College drop-out
After receiving a cash injection of $500,000 in late 2004, Zuckerberg dropped out of university and opened Facebook's HQ in Palo Alto, California.
Addictive from the beginning
Four days after it went live thefacebook.com had just 650 users. Just nine months after the launch, it had nearly one million active users. And less than a year later it changed its name to simply Facebook.com.
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Early investors
Signs of the company's future success were apparent early on. Soon enough the money started rolling in, and the growing platform received $12.7 million-worth of investments in 2005, followed by $27.5 million in 2006. The company then opened up beyond universities to the whole world, allowing anyone with an email address to register. This picture of Zuckerberg with friend and co-founder Dustin Moskovitz was taken the very night they did that.
The famous Facebook face revealed
Before a homepage redesign in 2007, Facebook’s front page featured a man’s face, slightly blurred by code. Known as the “Facebook guy”, people eventually realised the face in fact belonged to actor Al Pacino.
Covering its bases
Facebook goes the extra mile to protect its brand, owning around 1,900 Facebook-related domain names including FB.com, IHateTheFacebookLikeButton.com and FacebookCreditsSuck.org
Welcoming hackers
While most tech companies hate hackers, Facebook welcomes them, encouraging users to look for bugs on the site, offering rewards of around $500 (£380) cash. In 2014, the company reportedly paid out $1.3 million (£990k) to 321 bug-catchers. They’ve even named one of the buildings at FB HQ after hacking (pictured). In 2017, Facebook awarded Russian security researcher Andrew Leonov $40,000 (£30.5k) for discovering Facebook was vulnerable to a “remote code execution” flaw – its biggest-ever bounty.
Hacked us? You’re hired
Proving how much it respects hackers, in 2005 university student Chris Putnam attacked Facebook with a virus that made its pages look like competitor MySpace. Instead of taking legal action, Facebook co-founder and then-COO Dustin Moskovitz began messaging Putnam and eventually persuaded him to drop out of school and work at Facebook as an engineer.
Unbelievable perks
If you’re lucky enough to actually work for Facebook, you’ll get a pretty sweet deal. Often voted one of the best places to work, offices feature free vending machines dolling out computer accessories, a video arcade, on-site barbershop, treadmill desks and tons of restaurants and cafes offering free meals.
Get to work
But staff work hard too. The phrase “this journey is 1% finished” is posted on the office walls around the world, reminding staffers “that we’ve only begun to fulfill our mission to make the world more open and connected”.
Taking on the giants
Facebook shares have not performed as well in the past year as they have done historically, but after the release of the results from 2018's fourth quarter shares leapt by 12%. The social media giant has a current valuation of around $479 billion (£366.5bn), officially making the company more valuable than retail giant Walmart, which is valued at $278 billion (£212.7bn). Zuckerberg is also wealthier than the richest member of the Walmart heirs, the Walton family.
Baby-faced billionaire
In fact, at just 34 years old, Zuckerberg is the fourth richest person in the world, according to Forbes, with his current net worth estimated at $62 billion (£47bn) at the time of writing.
A massive pay cut
Since 2013, Zuckerberg decided he’d only take home a $1 (77p) salary each year. His reasoning? He’s said he’s made enough money already. But don't feel too sorry for him. He raked in $23 billion (£17.9bn) in 2017 from share options.
Branching out
Facebook generates most of its revenue on mobile devices – with over 1.74 billion monthly mobile active users – and owns two of the most popular apps in the world. In 2012, it bought photo-sharing Instagram for $1 billion (£761.5m), which has one billion active users each month. And in 2014, Facebook paid a whopping $19 billion (£14.5bn) for messaging app WhatsApp. Across its "family" of apps, the company estimates it has 2.7 billion users logging on every day.
Taking the bad with the good...
As with any company Facebook has had low points. In the past few years it has been rocked by several scandals, such as Cambridge Analytica's harvesting of 50 million Facebook profiles in an attempt to influence voters in the US presidential election as well as the Brexit vote. Zuckerberg had to defend his platform in front of the US Congress in April 2018, but controversially refused to testify at a British and Canadian lawmaker panel as part of their investigation into fake news.
Simple style
Zuckerberg may be a very rich man but when it comes to his personal style he likes to keep it simple. He is known for wearing the same grey T-shirt – along with jeans, Nike trainers and sometimes a hoodie – every day. He even posted a joke about it (pictured) for his first Instagram story when the feature launched in 2016.
Doggone it
Mark Zuckerberg has a Puli, a type of Hungarian sheepdog, called Beast. And of course, it has its own Facebook page, with Beast currently boasting around 2.7 million followers. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan run the page @beast.the.dog, and post photos regularly. That's a lotta puppy love.
Facebook family
Zuckerberg has come along way from his college days, not just in terms of business but his personal life too. Alongside Beast the dog, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have two daughters: Maxima (or Max for short) and August. Zuckerberg has described fatherhood as the most rewarding job he has ever had.
Facebook facts: Don’t ignore Zuckerberg
So after 15 years, what do we know about Facebook? Fact number one: it’s impossible to block Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook facts: Not so awesome
The “Like” button was originally meant to be called “Awesome”. On average Facebook sees four million likes every minute.
Facebook facts: All around the globe
Despite Facebook starting in the US, India actually has the highest number of users, with 194 million as of October 2018.
Facebook facts: Millions of Chinese people use it even though it's banned
In 2016, China had 52.87 million active users, which is pretty amazing given Facebook is banned in the country.
Facebook facts: We talk about the news
In 2016, the five most talked-about topics on Facebook were: the US Presidential election, Brazilian politics, Pokémon Go, Black Lives Matter, and Rodrigo Duterte and the Philippines presidential election. While in 2017 top topics were International Women's Day, the Super Bowl 51, and the violence that took place in Las Vegas, proving that it really is a place where news and current affairs can be discussed.
Facebook facts: Most popular movie
In terms of the silver screen, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the top film on Facebook as of April 2018, with 74.06 million page likes. This was followed by another well-loved series, Fast & Furious, with 60.72 million fans. In third place was a classic, with 1997's Titanic proving that new isn't always better, with 55.11 million page likes.
Facebook facts: Bean on top
While on TV, Mr Bean is the best liked, and has more Facebook fans than any other TV show on Facebook with a massive 77.93 million, as of March 2018. It’s followed closely by The Simpsons (65.08 million) and SpongeBob SquarePants (52.39 million).
Facebook facts: Her hips don’t lie
Surprisingly the most popular musician on Facebook as of August 2018 is not Beyoncé or Taylor Swift but Shakira with 103.51 million fans. In second place is Eminem with 89.36 million, followed by Rihanna with 81.01 million followers.
Facebook facts: Profiles soaring
Despite being around for 15 years, six new Facebook profiles are created every second. That's a whole pool of new people to branch out to every day.
Facebook facts: Don't believe everything you see
That said, according to Facebook's 2018 Q4 report, there are currently 116 million fake profiles out there. From professionals doing testing and research, to people wanting to split their Facebook usage into more than one account, it's worth knowing who you're liking.
Facebook facts: Friends in their hundreds
On average a user has 155 Facebook friends, according to an Oxford University study. However, the survey also found that in a crisis situation they felt that they only had four friends they could turn to.
Facebook facts: We like to say cheese online
The number of photos uploaded on FB every day? An incredible 350 million; that’s a whole lot of selfies.
Facebook facts: Have you got a minute?
People spend, on average, 35 minutes a day on Facebook, according to data from Nielsen. That’s 12,775 minutes every year!
Facebook facts: Succession planning
Zuckerberg has it written into his contract that, should he die while still running the company, the control may be transferred to a person or entity that he has chosen as his successor.
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Facebook facts: Until Facebook do us part
According to a Divorce-Online study, Facebook has been named as a factor in one in three divorces in the UK. The reason? The site makes it easier for users to find former flames and to chat with new flings.
Facebook facts: Don’t worry, be happy
On a more downbeat note, one in three Facebook users reported that they felt worse after visiting the site, according to German research.
Facebook facts: Fighting extremism online
Facebook, alongside other tech giants YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft, has launched a Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism which promises to focus on partnerships, solutions and research.
The future of social media?
After 15 years Facebook is still looking to grow. It has recently revealed that it plans to merge its apps in order to develop "the best messaging experiences". The idea of connecting Facebook Messenger with WhatsApp and Instagram messaging has shocked many who see it as posing a risk to privacy, but Zuckerberg has said that the merger is in the early stages and the earliest it could actually happen is 2020. Here's to the next stage of our Facebook lives...
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