Ten years ago today, a project that began in a Harvard dorm room set off on the path to world domination. Yup, on 4 February 2004 what was then known as “The Facebook” made its first few tentative steps into the world.
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Since then, things have exploded. With 1.23-billion users, Facebook is now the most popular social network on the planet. Sure there have been a few failed products along the way, but overall Facebook’s pretty much gone from strength to strength. Heck, there was a time when no one thought it could possibly make any money.
It took until 2009 for it make its first profit, but it clearly proved its critics wrong on that front.
It’s also managed to turn mobile, once its Achilles heel, into one its biggest money spinners.
Those are all massive events, to be sure, but they’re just a taste of some of the things Facebook has gone through over the years. We’ve put together what we think are some of the most important dates in the social network’s history to give you a glimpse of the road it’s taken to get to where it is today.
4 February 2004
Let’s start with the most obvious one shall we? Having previously launched a Hot or Not-style site called Facemash, Mark Zuckerberg launched “Thefacebook”, originally located at thefacebook.com.
Originally only open to Harvard students, the social network quickly spread to other universities.
June 2004
While it’s a little bit more difficult to put an exact date on Facebook’s move to Palo Alto California, it is one of the most significant events in the company’s history. Importantly, it gave Facebook access to big name Silicon Valley investors, including Peter Thiel, who became the first person to put serious money into the company.
6 September 2006
Having dropped the “the” from its name in 2005, Facebook continued to evolve to the needs of its ever-increasing user base. Perhaps the most important step in this direction was the launch of News Feed, the product that was to become the cornerstone of its strategy and would eventually lead the social network to launch Paper, its own social news reading app.
26 September 2006
Facebook also opened up to the general public in September 2006. As has pretty much been the case since then, anyone older than 13 with a valid email address could sign up.
16 September 2009
Facebook’s launch came at a time when it was still possible to launch a social network first and figure out the revenue model later. By late 2009 however, it had managed to get its advertising model to the point where it was capable of turning a profit.
13 March 2010
For the first time, more people visited Facebook than Google in the week leading up to 13 March 2010.
1 February 2012
In early 2012, Facebook filed documentation with the Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for its Initial Public Offering. Speculation abounded about whether it would be symptomatic or the first real victim of a new tech bubble.
18 May 2012
Following months of speculation, Facebook started trading on the Nasdaq as a publicly listed company. While it managed to raise US$16-billion (the third largest IPO in US history), its stock price quickly fell and only recovered to IPO levels in late 2013.
23 August 2012
After years of adamantly clinging to HTML5, Facebook finally launched a native iOS app. A native Android app would follow soon after. Zuckerberg meanwhile called the decision to stay with HTML5 for so long “the biggest mistake we made as a company”.
4 October 2012
In late 2012, Facebook passed a billion users for the first time, cementing its spot as the world’s most popular social network.
Today, it’s still growing. Of its massive user base, more than 750-million access the site daily and of those, 556-million (73%) are mobile users.
When it comes to monthly active users, meanwhile Facebook is still in the billions — it currently sees 1.23-billion users, 945-million (78%) of whom access it using mobile devices.
