By Himanshu Guru: Facebook, the world’s most popular social networking site of present time turns 9 today. Following its inception by Mark Zuckerberg merely as a communicating networks in the Harvard University on February 4, 2004, so far the site has over one billion active users across the world.
Zuckerberg started Facebook as a college network in a dorm of Harvard University with the help of his four friends Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes. The site had got its first name as ‘thefacebook.com’ which later took the name Facebook.
Within a very short period, Facebook became a super success and the motion is still continuing with huge number of users joining the site every moment.
Keeping in view success of Facebook, Microsoft bought a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook for $240 million in October 2007. Even Search giant Google had also offered partnership, which was not accepted by Facebook.
Facebook became a Public Limited Company in May 2012 and was valued at over $100 billion after IPO.
Facebook has been loved by each section of the people and from a wide range of age group, including both male and female. Perhaps the luring apps added from time to time are the attractive feature that attracts the huge number of users to join the site. Like the new one the Graph Search, a tool that uses social data to help compile results for users. Facebook also has other attractive apps like Cards and voice calling on iPhone to attract users in North America.
Perhaps the other factor for which Facebook is so much popular is its concern for privacy of the users. The site has become prey of hacking at different times regarding popping up of nude pics or regarding privacy, but it has always come out successful out of it and garnered user’s love again.
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Many a times the concept maker of Facebook has also been dragged into lawsuits but still the site is no doubt proved itself to be the number one social networking site so far.
Amongst them while his senior from Harvard, Cameron Winklewoss, Tyler Winklewoss and Divya Narendra filed lawsuit against Zuckerberg, Co-founder Eduardo Saverin also filed a lawsuit for pushing him out of the company. Both the cases were settled out of court.
US, Brazil, India, Indonesia and Mexico are the countries with maximum users of Facebook.
Facebook became so much a hot cake that in 2011 a movie was made in the Hollywood called The Social Network that exhibited the events that led to the inception of Facebook. Interestingly, the movie was nominated for eight Oscars and won three.
In March 2004, the headquarters of the Facebook was shifted to Palo Alto in California. And in 2006 it introduces the most popular feature News Feed. In May 2007 Facebook added the photo sharing features, taking quizzes and playing games and it was a smash hit.
As a business achievement, in October 2007, Microsoft bough stake in Facebook for $240 million. In March 2008 Facebook hires Sheryl Sandberg as COO, who was previously a high-profile executive from Google Inc. The site added the Location feature in 2010 to know the exact location of users and friends.
Today, Facebook is the most popular name in the world of internet, technology and social networking.