Facebook as we know it today has quite modest origins. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s cofounder, initially founded the social media platform at Harvard University in 2004. At the age of 23, Zuckerberg, a psychology student but avid computer programmer, created the site as a social networking means for university students. The platform was initially named “thefacebook.com”. Within one month of its launch, over half of Zuckerberg’s undergraduate class had subscribed, motivating him to extend subscriptions to other universities. It was purchased in 2005 for a modest $200,000, marking the name change to “facebook.com”. That year, the network of users expanded to high schools and universities across the globe. The following year, 2006, the platform became accessible beyond educational institutions; anyone with an email address could sign up. Facebook was so attractive due to the fact that its subscription was free, as its revenue came from classified advertisement postings from other organizations on its site. Facebook was continuously on the rise, forcing move after move, expansion after expansion. Its historic $5 billion initial public offering came in May 2012; However, it is now worth approximately $350 billion. As Facebook continues to grow and acquire other giants such as Instagram along the way, its expanding its space in research and networking, making it seemingly unstoppable.
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