Home > Topics > Facebook

facebook

Facebook is an online social media and networking service founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg along with his fellow Harvard college roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Chris Huges and Dustin Moskovitz. Facebook was initially made available for Harvard University students and later it was expanded for other colleges, schools and universities. It was made available to everyone above the age of 13 in the year 2006. According to the company's website, Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. While attending the Harvard University as a second year student Zuckerberg wrote a program called 'Facemash' that used compiled photos that was gained by Zuckerberg by hacking into Harvard's computer network and copying the images. He then placed two photos at a time and asked the users to choose the 'hotter' person. The site was then forwarded to several other campuses and servers. However, the site was shut down by Harvard University and Zuckerberg had to face expulsion. After returning to the university, Zuckerberg in the next semester got inspired by an editorial in The Harvard Crimson about the Facemash incident and then Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook" website on 4th February 2004 and it was located at the facebook.com. Membership of Thefacebook was initially for the students of Harvard College and it later was opened to other universities like the University of Columbia, Stanford and Yale and later it was opened for most of the universities in Canada and United States. Zuckerberg's informal advisor Sean Parker became the company's president in mid 2004 and in 2005 Thefacebook dropped 'the' from its name after purchasing the domain name facebook.com for US$200,000. The company moved to Palo Alto in California in June 2004 and the next month the company received its first investment from Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal. Later in May 2005, Facebook received investment of $12.7 million from Accel Partners and $1 million from Jim Breyer. Facebook then launched a a high-school version in September 2005 and was also made available to the employees of Apple Inc. and Microsoft. Gaining steady popularity, the forum was opened to general public on September 26, 2006. Anybody above the age of 13 with a valid email id could open a Facebook account. Facebook gained popularity in no time and by January 2009 a study by ompete.com ranked Facebook as the most used networking service on the basis of monthly active users. The company continued to gain traffic and by July 2010, the company announced that it has crossed the 500 million users mark to become the largest online social network in the world at the time. By November 2010, Facebook's value was marked at $41 billion based on SecondMarket Inc. study. This made Facebook the third largest American web company. Facebook filed for an Initial Public Offering on 1st February 2012 and negotiated a share price of US$38. This valued the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation for a newly listed public company. As of September 2016, Facebook's headquarter is located at 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California and as of June 30 2016, Facebook has 14,495 employees working. The company has on average 1.13 billion daily active users, and a total of 1.71 billion monthly. With over 84.5% of daily active users outside the US and Canada, the social media behemoth is easily one of the largest influence on the internet today. Facebook also owns WhatsApp and Instagram that has 1 billion and 500 million monthly users respectively. Facebook has been able to create a social impact on human life. Facebook allows people to connect to different people worldwide and enabling them to continuously can stay in touch with their relatives and friends. It also helps in uniting people with common interest and they can create their own open or closed private groups. Facebook also has been able to change the way people communicate. People now use images and videos to communicate and his friends or colleagues can respond to their posts through 'likes' or various other emoticons that were recently introduced by Facebook. Facebook also has been able to create a political impact and majority of the major political parties around the globe have their presence on Facebook. However, Facebook also has been a subject to many criticisms around the globe. According to a report released by Geenpeace on 21st April 2011, Facebook was the most reliant on coal for electricity for its data center and it consumes up to 2% of all global electricity and the amount was projected to increase in the future. Facebook was condemned in India for its Free Basics offer in collaboration with Reliance Communications. Issue of privacy and security bug also has been a major reasons creating negative image of Facebook. Facebook has been blocked temporarily or permanently in many countries. The government of Bangladesh has been blocking Facebook, WhatsApp and many other social media apps since 18th November 2015. To boot, it has been the center of many billion dollar lawsuits. Irrespective of all this, the social networking site continue to grow and is easily one of the largest influence today.

Facebook Invests in Leading Education-tech Startup Unacademy
IANS | February 19, 2020 7:28 PM IST
Bengaluru: Social media giant Facebook on Wednesday joined General Atlantic, Sequoia India and other...
Facebook Invests in Leading Education-tech Startup Unacademy
indiacom
2020-02-19T08:28:06+00:00
2020-02-19T08:28:06+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Maha Shivratri 2020 Gifs: Best Shivratri GIfs, SMS, WhatsApp & Facebook Messages to Send Happy Maha Shivratri Greetings
India.com Buzz Desk | February 19, 2020 3:42 PM IST
Mahashivratri is the 'Great Night of Shiva' and this festival will be celebrated on February 21, 202...
Maha Shivratri 2020 Gifs: Best Shivratri GIfs, SMS, WhatsApp & Facebook Messages to Send Happy Maha Shivratri
indiacom
2020-02-19T04:42:22+00:00
2020-02-19T06:01:51+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Mahashivratri 2020 Wishes, Quotes, SMS, WhatsApp Forwards, Facebook Status and GIF Which You Can Send to Celebrate the Festival Dedicated to Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati
Vandana.Srivastawa | February 19, 2020 1:15 PM IST
Mahashivratri will be celebrated all across the world by the Hindus on February 21, 2020. The day th...
Mahashivratri 2020 Wishes, Quotes, SMS, WhatsApp Forwards, Facebook Status and GIF Which You Can Send to Cele
indiacom
2020-02-19T02:15:35+00:00
2020-02-19T05:17:52+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Plea Against WhatsApp Pay Trials to be Heard in Supreme Court
IANS | February 13, 2020 10:53 AM IST
New Delhi: A plea has been moved in the Supreme Court seeking a complete stoppage of trials being co...
Plea Against WhatsApp Pay Trials to be Heard in Supreme Court
indiacom
2020-02-12T23:53:44+00:00
2020-02-12T23:53:44+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Are Royal Challengers Bangalore Set To Be Renamed? Speculations Rife After IPL Franchise’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram Accounts Go Blank
India.com Sports Desk | February 12, 2020 10:42 PM IST
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have sent fans in a tizzy after the Indian Premier League (IPL) fr...
Are Royal Challengers Bangalore Set To Be Renamed? Speculations Rife After IPL Franchise’s Twitter, Faceboo
indiacom
2020-02-12T11:42:52+00:00
2020-02-12T11:42:57+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Facebook Looks Beyond GPS, Ties With Startup That Uses AI Vision For Location
IANS | February 9, 2020 6:14 PM IST
San Francisco: Facebook has acquired Scape Technologies -- a London-based computer vision start-up w...
Facebook Looks Beyond GPS, Ties With Startup That Uses AI Vision For Location
indiacom
2020-02-09T07:14:27+00:00
2020-02-09T07:14:27+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Its Security System Better Than Twitter's: Hackers Take Over Facebook's Social Media Accounts
India.com News Desk | February 8, 2020 1:42 PM IST
New Delhi: In a major breach, a hackers' group on Friday briefly took over the Twitter and Instagram...
Its Security System Better Than Twitter's: Hackers Take Over Facebook's Social Media Accounts
indiacom
2020-02-08T02:42:08+00:00
2020-02-08T02:42:08+00:00
Facebook
India.com
WhatsApp Stops Services For Millions of Old iPhone, Android Versions From Feb 1
India.com News Desk | February 1, 2020 9:44 PM IST
New Delhi: WhatsApp, one of the most-downloaded apps of the decade, has officially discontinued serv...
WhatsApp Stops Services For Millions of Old iPhone, Android Versions From Feb 1
indiacom
2020-02-01T10:44:12+00:00
2020-02-01T10:44:12+00:00
Facebook
India.com
‘No Place For Violence’: Hours After Going Live, Facebook Takes Down Jamia Shooter's Profile
India.com News Desk | January 30, 2020 11:11 PM IST
New Delhi: Hours after creating havoc and subsequently injuring a protesting student in Jamia area, ...
‘No Place For Violence’: Hours After Going Live, Facebook Takes Down Jamia Shooter's Profile
indiacom
2020-01-30T12:11:32+00:00
2020-01-30T12:11:32+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Facebook Down Due to 'Degraded Performance' Across The World
IANS | January 26, 2020 12:06 PM IST
New Delhi: Faceboook on Sunday faced major outage in the UK, the US and parts of Europe and Asia as ...
Facebook Down Due to 'Degraded Performance' Across The World
indiacom
2020-01-26T01:06:18+00:00
2020-01-26T04:06:13+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Ellen DeGeneres-Ankita Konwar Share Jaw-Dropping Transformation From Linkedin to Tinder
India.com Buzz Desk | January 23, 2020 11:29 AM IST
The new Instagram challenge has already gripped celebrities in India as well as on foreign turf and ...
Ellen DeGeneres-Ankita Konwar Share Jaw-Dropping Transformation From Linkedin to Tinder
indiacom
2020-01-23T00:29:03+00:00
2020-01-23T00:29:03+00:00
Facebook
India.com
35-Year-Old Man Ends Life After Going Live on Facebook to Inform About The Decision
PTI | January 22, 2020 2:08 PM IST
A 35-year-old civic employee allegedly committed suicide here in Maharashtra, minutes after going li...
35-Year-Old Man Ends Life After Going Live on Facebook to Inform About The Decision
indiacom
2020-01-22T03:08:26+00:00
2020-01-22T03:08:26+00:00
Facebook
India.com
After 48 Years, Bangladeshi Man Reunites With Family; Thanks to a Viral Facebook Video
India.com Buzz Desk | January 20, 2020 11:24 AM IST
Dhaka: All thanks to a viral Facebook video, a 78-year-old Bangladeshi man was reunited with his fam...
After 48 Years, Bangladeshi Man Reunites With Family; Thanks to a Viral Facebook Video
indiacom
2020-01-20T00:24:37+00:00
2020-01-20T00:29:38+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Users Face Issues in Sending Photos, Stickers as WhatsApp Down in Many Parts of Globe
India.com News Desk | January 19, 2020 6:18 PM IST
New Delhi: WhatsApp, the popular online messaging service, is not working and facing some issues in ...
Users Face Issues in Sending Photos, Stickers as WhatsApp Down in Many Parts of Globe
indiacom
2020-01-19T07:18:55+00:00
2020-01-19T07:19:16+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Facebook Says Will Show Fewer Political Ads But Won't Ban
IANS | January 10, 2020 8:37 AM IST
San Francisco: Facebook on Thursday announced it will show fewer political ads to people on its plat...
Facebook Says Will Show Fewer Political Ads But Won't Ban
indiacom
2020-01-09T21:37:25+00:00
2020-01-10T02:13:30+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Facebook, Instagram Users Can Now Choose to View Lesser Political Ads in Revised Transparency Policy
IANS | January 9, 2020 8:03 PM IST
San Francisco: Facebook on Thursday announced it will show fewer political ads to people on its plat...
Facebook, Instagram Users Can Now Choose to View Lesser Political Ads in Revised Transparency Policy
indiacom
2020-01-09T09:03:45+00:00
2020-01-09T09:03:45+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Facebook Cracks Down on Deepfake Videos, Targetting Misinformation in Run up to 2020 Elections
IANS | January 7, 2020 10:48 PM IST
San Francisco: Alarmed at the growing forged or deepfake videos on its platform, Facebook has announ...
Facebook Cracks Down on Deepfake Videos, Targetting Misinformation in Run up to 2020 Elections
indiacom
2020-01-07T11:48:10+00:00
2020-01-07T11:48:10+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Mumbai Man Creates Fake Profiles of Women on Facebook, Offers Nude Webcam Sessions
India.com Buzz Desk | December 30, 2019 3:20 PM IST
Mumbai: A case of cyber-crime was busted in Mumbai after a man was arrested for impersonating women ...
Mumbai Man Creates Fake Profiles of Women on Facebook, Offers Nude Webcam Sessions
indiacom
2019-12-30T04:20:07+00:00
2019-12-30T04:21:53+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Indian Navy Bans Facebook, Smartphones After 7 Personnel Arrested For Exposing Critical Assets
India.com News Desk | December 30, 2019 10:37 AM IST
New Delhi: Indian Navy has issued orders for a complete ban on the use of popular social media platf...
Indian Navy Bans Facebook, Smartphones After 7 Personnel Arrested For Exposing Critical Assets
indiacom
2019-12-29T23:37:02+00:00
2019-12-30T01:53:12+00:00
Facebook
India.com
Happy Birthday Boss: Mumbai's 'Shera Chikna' Detained For Celebrating Dawood's Birthday
India.com News Desk | December 28, 2019 5:10 PM IST
New Delhi: The crime branch of the Mumbai Police has detained a few persons after a Facebook post wi...
Happy Birthday Boss: Mumbai's 'Shera Chikna' Detained For Celebrating Dawood's Birthday
indiacom
2019-12-28T06:10:28+00:00
2019-12-28T06:12:05+00:00
Facebook
India.com