When the film came out in 2010 Social network David Fincher, few could have imagined that this stunning tale of twentysomething billionaires, grievances and morality tested through technology was just the beginning. Facebook was only six years old at the time. and in some ways it has already changed the way 500 million people communicate, more than the population of the United States and Canada combined.
That year, Facebook had not yet gone public, it had not yet acquired WhatsApp or Instagram and, of course, the Cambridge Analytica scandal had not yet occurred. Oh, and the Metaverse has so far been something I’ve only mentioned in science fiction stories.
It also seemed difficult that at some point Facebook as a company would abandon its own name. in the midst of a course change that is not yet fully determined.
What hasn’t changed since then is another name: Mark Zuckerberg. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the website, social network, platform and company that shaped the Internet, its culture and the current economy to the point of becoming, for some, a great modern villain. This is a tour through its history and all the changes it has brought about.
From Facebook on Facebook
On February 4, 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, then a Harvard student, launched a portal designed to connect students at his university: TheFacebook.com. All this was a success. He had previously made a similar attempt with a portal that assessed students’ physiques. And before him, others, such as Reed Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, had tried to launch what would later be called a social network several years earlier.
Zuckerberg’s idea wasn’t entirely new (and the Winklevoss brothers famously sued for allegedly plagiarizing an idea they shared with him), but it was a success.
In just a few months, after expanding to Ivy League universities, the number of users exceeded one million. That’s when he changed the domain to his current one: Facebook.com.
It seemed difficult that at some point Facebook as a company would abandon its own name, but the Internet has changed a lot in those 20 years.
Four years later there were already 100 million users. Next year 200. Today, it is estimated that while many people no longer use their accounts, just over 1 in 4 people on Earth have a Facebook account.
And the beginning of their bad practices
Facebook’s exponential growth was driven not only by its ease of use and ability to connect people, but also by its ability to collect user data.
The social network’s first major growth came after the acquisition of Onavo in 2013. shortly after the IPO a year earlier.
Onavo, an Israeli app, worked as a sort of mobile VPN that essentially served Facebook to collect a wealth of information about how users used their phones and with what apps.
This was a time when, due to a lack of regulation and awareness, Facebook could extract information from our contacts without even having an account with them, having access only to our data and our agenda.
Cambridge Analytica, the great scandal revealed in 2018 and which, at least momentarily, brought attention to how Facebook handled our data depended largely on these gaps.
But aside from obtaining data for advertising and political purposes, Facebook has also always been at the center of controversy for many other reasons. Without going into details, we note the lack of control over content and the use of it, and then Instagram, by its youngest users, which is reflected Zuckerberg’s recent speech in the US Senate.
The Great Online Advertising Economy
It is known to use Facebook and Instagram as an advertising platform. As users interacted with the platform, Facebook collected data about their preferences, interests, and behavior. This information was used to personalize the user experience. and target advertising more effectively.
Facebook’s advertising business began in 2006 when the platform introduced its first targeted advertising, allowing advertisers to reach specific audiences based on their demographic information and preferences. This advertising strategy became Facebook’s main source of income and allowed it to offer free services to its users.
Facebook, along with Google, created an online advertising duopoly that largely continues to this day. and this marked the way the network was built. Segmented advertising affected entire enterprises and industries, the media, and was also used, of course, for political purposes, as we collect in Hypertext in this special episode on the use of Facebook advertising by political parties.
When the family grows: the acquisitions that strengthened your empire with Instagram and WhatsApp
As Facebook continued to expand, it also sought opportunities to acquire other companies that would complement its vision and strengthen its position in the market. In 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram., a popular photo-sharing app at the time, for $1 billion. Today it looks like a bargain.
Zuckerberg is the only CEO and founder of a major tech company still in office.
The acquisition of Instagram allowed Facebook to enter the visual social networking market and attract a younger audience. Over time, The daughter’s social network was eating away at the mother in terms of profitability and users. Facebook has become social network of parentsand Instagram grew without competitors in its segment until the advent of TikTok.
IN 2014, Facebook has taken another big step towards the giant that it is by acquiring WhatsApp., an instant messaging application. With over a billion users at the time, WhatsApp became a key tool that gave Facebook an even larger user base and data to work with.
Their registrations also brought with them information about how Zuckerberg controlled the process of assimilation of these applications. Their founders left WhatsApp and Instagram after several years of working within the Facebook structure.
Anyone remember Cambridge Analytica?
The Cambridge Analytica scandal was just one of many problems that Facebook has faced in its history, from which it nevertheless managed to emerge, and none of them managed to completely destroy it.
From privacy and security issues to accusations of censorship and content manipulation. Facebook has repeatedly found itself at the center of controversy.. It is estimated that half of the more than 2.3 billion accounts have been compromised in some way as a result of such breaches alone.
Despite scandals and criticism, Facebook has managed to maintain its dominant position in the social networking market. While there has been a decline in user retention, especially among younger users, the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp have offset this loss to some extent.
Metamorphosis to Meta
Partly due to this wear and tear. At the end of 2021, Facebook as a company suddenly gave way to Meta.. Zuckerberg moved his finger from advertising to the metaverse, though perhaps only for us all to watch while advertising remained his main source of income and artificial intelligence was set up as his true future.
Facebook’s name change to Meta reflects the company’s efforts to diversify. and move away from its problematic image as a social network. Oculus, acquired in 2014, became the new foundation of the company’s hitherto modest hardware.
20 years under Zuckerberg
And yet, despite the fact that he even changed his name, the figure of Zuckerberg became the only CEO of Big Tech. and the founder, who remains in office.
It is protected by the company’s power-sharing system. Despite his lack of morals, Zuckerberg has proven over the years that he is a leader who must please his shareholders, so thinking about his fall is not easy.
In the current context, which itself is a change in context, the company has managed to continue its share price growth and perform well. This is not to say that he has failed, whether he likes it or not, to stay on his feet and remain one of the most profitable and solvent technology leaders in the interests of himself and his company.
We don’t know if Facebook will exist as a meta in 20 years or not, but The impact it had in the first two decades of its history is undoubtedly still visible.
Source: Hiper Textual
I am Garth Carter and I work at Gadget Onus. I have specialized in writing for the Hot News section, focusing on topics that are trending and highly relevant to readers. My passion is to present news stories accurately, in an engaging manner that captures the attention of my audience.
