The Beginning Of Facebook
The creation of Facebook is often credited solely to Mark
Zuckerberg at age 19 while sitting in his Harvard college dorm room; however,
the success of the app, along with Zuckerberg, is also thanks to three other
classmates, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Christ Hughes, as said by
ThoughtCo. Zuckerberg began his journey developing Facebook with his creation
of Facesmash, where he hacked his school’s directory and created a kind of
Tinder with student ID photos. On the website, students could compare two
student ID photos to determine who was attractive and who was not. The website
was quickly taken down by the university. Zuckerberg faced charges of breach of
security, copyright violations, and individual privacy violations, but all the
charges were eventually dropped. After, he launched another website called
TheFacebook. The purpose of this website was to help students connect with each
other. He then was accused of stealing another group of upperclassmen’s ideas
for a social app called HarvardConnection. The lawsuit was settled in court,
and Zuckerberg continued to develop his website.
Almost immediately, Harvard students were using Facebook
daily. With the help of his fellow classmates, who worked on business,
programming, graphic design, and representation, the website began to grow in
popularity. In a few months, students from other schools were asking them to
launch the website at their schools. Then, within a year, more than a million
students were active on the website.
In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg explains the purpose behind
Facebook. He says that he found that there were websites for almost everything
except what really mattered, which were people. This theme appears often in his
previous versions of Facebook, as each website, sometimes questionably, was
built around people and connecting them together.
Zuckerberg’s journey creating Facebook is well known, as it is inspiring to many young students, because it shares the message that there is no age requirement for successful creation and innovation. He also remained determined throughout the entire process, no matter how many times he faced challenges. Today, Zuckerberg’s net worth is estimated to be around $219.4billion and ranked fourth on the Forbes Billionaire list. In 2024, Facebook generated $164.5 billion in revenue. At 19, Mark Zuckerberg took a risk to launch a website to connect his campus together. He now owns the most used social media platform in the world.
Hey Aubrey! As someone who doesn't use Facebook a lot, I find it unique that we're learning about Facebook right now. It has taught me a lot about it! I also enjoy hearing about Zuckerberg's experience and the path he took with Facebook. It's crazy to think that for as young as what he was, what this app has turned into. It has only continued to grow, especially for business use. Thanks for highlighting these important moments of his career!
ReplyDeleteHi Aubrey! I never knew that three of Zuckerberg's classmates were involved in the creation of Facebook as well. It is also interesting to see how the app has evolved over the years because as you mentioned it was originally created for college students but now it is extremely uncommon for college students to use it as a form of communication compared to apps such as Snapchat. I find it surprising that this is still the most used platform as the social media world is constantly evolving and changing but it has held it's position at the top. Thanks for the great insight on the beginning of Facebook!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you walked through Facebook’s early development instead of just focusing on its current success. Including Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes helped show that Facebook was a team effort, not just a one-person story. It also made me think more critically about how innovation and controversy can exist at the same time in the growth of a major company.
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