Facebook’s evolution in the past 10 years is nothing short of what its creator Mark Zuckerberg had envisioned in 2004, the year of its inception. The purpose of Facebook was to be a discovery site for meeting new people and learning new information. In an interview with CNBC, Zuckerberg outlined his growth of the social network and what it would look like in the future.
At the time of the launch, Zuckerberg expected about 400-500 people to join in the network. Having achieved that, the company hoped to expand into 200-300 universities later that fall. However, once they were at 100,000 people, he seemed very optimistic about the growth of Facebook and stated, ” Now we’re at 100,000 people. So who knows where we’re going next…Maybe we can make something cool.”
As per Zuckerberg, the original plan was to make a bunch of “Side applications” which would bring the users back. This worked out quite well and with the various apps introduced over the years, the user interest has been constantly maintained and people are always on a look out on what’s new on Facebook.
As per Nate Elliot, principal analyst at Forrester Research, “Facebook continues to evolve its offering.” Whether it has developed its own new features or has taken up features from competitor sites, the combination of the two has helped the site beat the odds and stay relevant for its users.”
Features such as News Feed and Facebook Home were original Facebook’s creations and Hashtags and Trending topics were “inspired” from Twitter. Let us have a closer look at Facebook’s evolution from being an idea to being one of largest social network with a 1.2 billion user base.
2004
4th February- Facebook is born
- Mark Zuckerberg launches thefacebook.com while enrolled in Harvard University. The site was only available to Harvard students.
June
- Peter Thiel, venture capitalist, invests $500,000 in the growing network.
December
- Facebook reaches 1 million users mark within 10 months of its launch.
2005
August
- The company drops “the” from its original name and acquires “Facebook.com” domain for $200,000.
October
- The feature of unlimited photo uploads and tagging photos was added to the site.
December
- 5.5 million active users on Facebook
2006
September
News Feed and Mini Feed added to Facebook.
- News feed would be constantly updating list of stories from people and Pages that you follow on Facebook.
- Minifeed would highlight changes and updates to specific user profile.
With the “Welcome to Facebook, everyone”, Facebook allows users above 13 years and with a valid email address to join the network
October
- Facebook allows users to share interesting things they find on the web, with their friends through link sharing. An embeddable share button is released for web developers.
2007
January
- Facebook adds the ability to upload photos, view site and receive text message notifications via mobile.
April
June
- Facebook video launched and allows uploading videos just as images.
November
- Facebook Pages launched. Users can now become “Fans” of customised brand profiles.
- Social Ads and advertisements added in the News Feed.
December
- 50 million active users on Facebook.
2008
April
- Facebook Chat introduced. Allows users to connect with each other without leaving the site.
May
- Facebook introduces “ People you may know” feature, encouraging people to expand their friends base
July
- The free Facebook for iphone app launched on app store. Facebook releases the Wall, a personalised constantly updating stream of information about each user.
December
- Facebook Connect launched. Allows members to use their Facebook profiles to log into other web properties.
- 150 million active users on Facebook.
2009
February
- Facebook launches the “like” button to reduce the number of short complementary comments.
March
- The homepage is redesigned showing friends’ updates as they happen in real time
July
- Users can create “Events” and invite their friends to it.
September
- Users can tag their friends in statuses and posts
December
- 350 million active users on Facebook
2010
July
- “Like” button extended to the comments section allowing users to appreciate a friend’s remark.
December
- Facebook starts face recognition to make tagging of friends in photos easier.
- 608 million active Facebook users.
2011
July
- Video calling available through Facebook chat.
- Subscribe unveiled. Allows users to connect and follow public updates of users they are not friends with.
September
- News Feed organised as per “Top stories”
- “Timeline”, a massive update to the profile announced.
December
- 845 million active users on Facebook.
2012
April
- Photo sharing social network, Instagram, acquired by Facebook for $1 billion.
May
December
- 1.06 billion active users on Facebook
2013
April
- Facebook Home, a new way to use the network on Android smartphones, revealed.
June
August
- Graph search released. It helps users to look up anything that has been shared on Facebook.
December
- 1.23 billion active users on Facebook
2014
January
- Facebook introduces Trending to highlight topics which are either being talked about on Facebook or appeal to a particular user.
February
- Facebook launches Paper, a curated visual newreader on iOS. Facebook redefines the news reading experience, launches Paper
- Personalised one minute, look back videos for users on Facebook’s 10th anniversary.
- Facebook buys Whatsapp $19bn
March
- Facebook buys virtual reality headset startup for $2bn