Facebook, the popular social media platform, was officially launched on February 4, 2004. Hence, Facebook’s birthday is celebrated annually on February 4. Mark Zuckerberg, along with his college roommates Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz, founded the platform. The initial version of Facebook was created at Harvard University, where Zuckerberg was a student. It was originally intended for Harvard students, but it expanded to other universities and became available to the general public. Google Birthday: 25 Facts to Know About the Search Engine and Its Data Centres On Its 25th Birth Anniversary.

The name derives from the face book directories often given to American university students. The membership was initially limited to Harvard students, gradually expanding to other North American universities. As of October 2023, Facebook ranked as the 3rd most visited website in the world with 22.56% of its traffic coming from the United States. The social media platform was the most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.

Facebook is owned by American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms. The social media platform has grown into one of the largest and most influential social media platforms globally, with billions of active users. In 2003, Zuckerberg built a website called ‘Facemash’ while attending Harvard University. The site was comparable to Hot or Not and used photos compiled from the online face books of nine Houses. Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours. The site was sent to several campus group but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged with breaching security, violating copyrights and violating individual privacy.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 04, 2024 07:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).