Life+Cycle

=Life Cycle=

During 2003 MySpace was the most used social media network. Whilst at this point Mark Zuckerberg was studying psychology at Harvard University. At the young age of 23, Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook. In February 2004 Mr Zuckerberg launched "The facebook", as it was originally known; the name taken from the sheets of paper distributed to freshmen, profiling students and staff. Within 24 hours, 1,200 Harvard students had signed up, and after one month, over half of the undergraduate population had a profile. It wasn't until August 2005, that The Facebook was converted to facebook.com after the address was purchased for $200,000. US high schools could sign up from September 2005, then it began to spread worldwide, reaching UK universities the following month. As of September 2006, the network was extended beyond educational institutions to anyone with a registered email address. It was free to register, instead using advertisement (by selling space on the site) to create financial income and profits.

Since it's launch there were several attempts from large organisations to purchase Facebook itself. It was Microsoft in 2007 who became the first company to announce that they had bought any meaningful share of the company. For a price of two hundred and forty million dollars, they were able to purchase one point six percent. The contract agreed on included rights to place international adverts on Facebook. During late 2008, it was announced that the international headquarters of Facebook were going to be set up in Dublin, and by January 2009 a [|Compete.com] study ranked Facebook as the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users. However, it wasn't until September 2009 that Facebook announced that it had for the first time turned a true profit. By this time, the growth in Facebook.com, in terms of infrastructure and users, had forced the company to invest heavily in hardware to ensure a smooth running approach of the site. For one week only in March 2010, the company even managed to beat the traffic going through Google.com.

In November 2010, based on [|SecondMarket] Inc., Facebook was valued at $41 billion (slightly surpassing [|eBay] 's) and it became the third largest U.S. Web company after [|Google] and [|Amazon]. The traffic that has flowed through Facebook has increased since 2009. A release of statistics by [|DoubleClick]  in June 2011 showed that Facebook had reached one trillion page views. during the month. This made it the most visited Web site in the world. However, it must be taken into account that [|Google]  and some of its selected Web sites are not accounted for in the DoubleClick rankings.

THE TIMELINE

__February __ Mark Zuckerberg and co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin launch Facebook from their Harvard dorm room __March __ Facebook expands from Harvard to Stanford, Columbia and Yale __June __ Facebook moves its base of operations to Palo Alto, Calif. __September __ Groups application is added; the Wall is added as a Profile feature __December __ Facebook reaches nearly 1 million active users
 * 2004 **

__May __ Facebook raises $12.7 million in venture capital from Accel Partners; Facebook grows to support more than 800 college networks __August __ The company officially changes its name to Facebook from thefacebook.com __September __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Facebook expands to add high school networks __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">October __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Photos is added as an application; Facebook begins to add international school networks __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">December __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Facebook reaches more than 5.5 million active users
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">2005 **

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">April __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook raises $27.5 million from Greylock Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and others, Facebook Mobile feature launches __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">May __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook expands to add work network __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">August __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook development platform launches, Notes application is introduced, Facebook and Microsoft form strategic relationship for banner ad syndication __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">September __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">News Feed and Mini-Feed are introduced with additional privacy controls, Facebook expands registration so anyone can join __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">November __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Share feature added on Facebook, simultaneously launched on over 20 partner sites __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">December __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches more than 12 million active users
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">2006 **

__<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">February __ <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Virtual gift shop launches as a feature __<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">March __ <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches over 2 million active Canadian users and 1 million active UK users __<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">April __<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches 20 million active users, Facebook updates site design and adds network portals __<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">May __ <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Facebook launches Marketplace application for classified listings, Facebook hosts F8 event to launch Facebook Platform, Facebook Platform launches with 65 developer partners and over 85 application __<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">July __ <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Facebook acquires startup Parakey __<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">October __ <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches over 50 million active users, Facebook launches Facebook Platform for Mobile, Facebook and Microsoft expand advertising deal to cover international markets; Microsoft takes a $240 million equity stake in Facebook __<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">November __ <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif;">Facebook launches Facebook Ads
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">2007 **

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">January __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook co-sponsors Presidential Debates with ABC News __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">February __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook launches in Spanish and French __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">March __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook updates privacy controls to include Friend List privacy, Facebook launches in German __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">April __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook launches Facebook Chat, Facebook releases Translation application to 21 additional languages __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">August __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches over 100 million active users __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">December __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook Connect becomes generally available
 * 2008**

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">January __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches over 150 million active users, CNN Live/Facebook integration __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">February __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches over 175 million active users, Facebook joins OpenID board, “Like” feature added __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">April __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches over 200 million active users __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">May __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Digital Sky Technologies makes a $200 million investment for preferred stock at a $10 billion valuation __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">June __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook launches Facebook Usernames __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">August __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook acquires FriendFeed __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">September __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches over 300 million active users __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">December __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches over 350 million active users
 * 2009**

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">February __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches over 400 million active users __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">July __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches over 500 million active users, Facebook launches beta of Questions __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">August __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook launches Places
 * 2010**

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">July __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Facebook reaches over 750 million active users
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">2011 **

media type="custom" key="11473896"