**The Birth of Facebook: How a College Dorm Project Became a Global Obsession**
(When Did Facebook Start)
Picture a chilly evening in 2003. A 19-year-old Harvard student sits at his desk, clicking away on a laptop. His name is Mark Zuckerberg. He’s just hacked into the university’s network to grab student ID photos. His goal? Create a website called Facemash. It lets users compare two faces and vote on who’s “hotter.” The site crashes within hours. Zuckerberg gets in trouble. But this messy start planted the seed for something bigger: Facebook.
Facemash wasn’t the plan. Zuckerberg wanted to build a social network for Harvard students. He called it “Thefacebook.” It launched on February 4, 2004. The idea was simple. Students could make profiles, share interests, and connect with classmates. It spread fast. Within 24 hours, over 1,200 students signed up. A month later, half of Harvard’s undergrads had profiles.
Thefacebook wasn’t the first social network. Sites like Friendster and MySpace already existed. But Zuckerberg’s site felt different. It was clean, exclusive, and tied to real identities. You needed a Harvard email to join. This made it feel like a private club. Soon, other colleges wanted in. By March 2004, the site expanded to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale. By year’s end, it reached nearly one million users.
Money became a problem. Servers cost cash. Ads weren’t enough. In 2004, Zuckerberg met Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster. Parker helped incorporate the company and rename it “Facebook.” He also connected Zuckerberg with investors. Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist, gave $500,000. That kept the lights on.
Growth exploded. By 2005, Facebook reached 5.5 million users. High school students got access. Then international schools. Employees joined. By September 2006, anyone over 13 with an email could sign up. The “The” in the name dropped. It was just Facebook now.
Features kept people hooked. The “Wall” let friends post public messages. “Pokes” became a weirdly popular way to say “hi.” Photos changed everything. Before Facebook, sharing pics online was clunky. Facebook made it easy. By 2005, users uploaded over a million photos a day.
Not everything worked smoothly. The 2006 “News Feed” update caused outrage. Suddenly, everyone’s activity popped up on a single page. Users called it creepy. Protests erupted. Zuckerberg apologized but kept the feature. Today, News Feed is the heart of Facebook.
Early drama shaped the company. The Winklevoss twins sued Zuckerberg. They claimed he stole their idea for a Harvard social network. The lawsuit settled in 2008. They got $65 million. The story later inspired the movie *The Social Network*.
Facebook’s rise wasn’t just luck. Timing mattered. The mid-2000s saw internet access grow. Digital cameras became common. People wanted to share lives online. Facebook filled that gap. It turned into a daily habit. By 2006, it had 12 million users.
Big moments kept coming. Microsoft invested $240 million in 2007. The company opened offices worldwide. By 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion. A year later, it tried to snap up Snapchat but failed. In 2014, it acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion.
(When Did Facebook Start)
Looking back, nobody expected a dorm-room project to redefine human connection. From Facemash’s prankish roots to a platform used by billions, Facebook’s journey is wild, messy, and utterly unpredictable. It changed how we talk, share, and even argue. Love it or hate it, Facebook’s story is a reminder that big ideas often start small—and sometimes, a little trouble is just the beginning.
Inquiry us
if you want to want to know more, please feel free to contact us. (nanotrun@yahoo.com)
