We all have relatives, friends, neighbors, and people we care for that are in distant places. Most often than not, we would want to talk to them or visit them in person just to understand how they have been, but there is certain limitations e.g., distance, cost of calling them, availability of time to visit them and of course the changing time in this fast-moving world.
What if there is a way you would connect to them even when you are away, what if there is a message you want to put across the word and you get a platform to do just that. Facebook is a platform that allows you to do that in the comfort of your home. People have lots of ways to communicate like email, messages, and even calls, but Facebook has become very popular and convenient because of the ability to reach, connect and share with the people you care about at the same time.
Facebook allows you to send messages and post status updates to keep in touch with friends and family. You can also share different types of content, like photos and links. Facebook is different from other types of online communications, while the other form of communication maintains their privacy. Facebook tends to have a more social public appeal.
Inception
Facebook is a social networking site that makes your connections and sharing made easy with family and friends online. Initially, Facebook was designed for college students, but that changed as time went by. Facebook was created in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, along with Edward Saverin, while they were studying at Harvard University. Each of them agreed to invest $1,000 in the site as capital, and eventually, on February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched “The Facebook,” originally located at thefacebook.com.
In 2006, anyone over the age of 13 years with a valid email address could join Facebook. It became the social network that more popular than MySpace, which was in operation at that time. Today, Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with more than 1 billion users worldwide
Facebook’s success can be attributed to its ability to appeal to both people and businesses and its ability to interact with sites around the web by providing a single login that works across multiple sites. Facebook is user-friendly and open to everyone. Although it started out as a way to keep in touch or reconnect with long-lost friends, it rapidly became an asset of businesses that we’re able to closely target an audience and deliver ads directly to the people influence products or services.
Evolution
When Facebook started, the founders had originally limited Facebook membership to Harvard students. But they later expanded to Ivy League schools, MIT and other institutions of higher learning in the Boston area. Then its membership grew to other universities and high schools and to all who were above 13 years and had an email address. Though the age factor varies depending on the local laws.
In 2004 Facebook moved to Palo Alto, California. From 2005 Facebook attracted investors who partnered with him. He first partnered with PayPal, who invested $12.7Million other individual investors also came on board. By 2007 100,000 pages of companies wanted to promote their services through Facebook. On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion. Microsoft’s purchase included rights to place international advertisements
Facebook passed 100 million registered users in 2008 and 500 million in July 2010. Second Market, Inc. Valued Facebook at $41 billion in 2010. Facebook’s rapid growth began as soon as it became available and has continued through 2018. Facebook has become the third-largest American web company after Google and amazon.com, respectively. Facebook is investing heavily in developing new products, including the new Libra cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality.
Awards and Achievements
Facebook has had a lot of achievements since its inceptions.it have made tremendous growth that has made it being recognized for their good work. In 2008 Facebook won the “People’s Voice Award” from the Webby Awards.
In 2010, it also won the Crunchie “Best Overall Startup Or Product” award for the third year in a row.
Net worth of Facebook in 2024
Facebook primarily makes money by selling advertising space on its various social media platforms. Their initial public offering was made on May 17, 2012, at a share price of $38. The IPO raised $16 billion, the third-largest in U.S. history. Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, Microsoft’s purchase included rights to place international advertisements On October 24, 2007.
Mark Zuckerberg has majority shares on Facebook, and his company’s net worth is estimated to be $90 billion as of April 2024. The overall company was valued at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date, and is the most recognizable brand .it also makes it one of the most downloaded apps globally.
Facebook has been extensively used globally, but it also is subject to many controversies. These often involve user privacy, political manipulation, addiction effects, especially young people. It also has questionable content, like fake news, copyright infringement, and conspiracy. In 2017, Facebook partnered with fact-checkers from the Poynter Institute, which is an International Fact-Checking Network to identify and mark false content. The program gave them some success but accused Facebook of not doing enough to remove false information from its website.