SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 1, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Key dates in the history of
Facebook, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary in February: — 2004 —
JANUARY: Mark Zuckerberg, a 19-year-old computer whiz at Harvard
University, begins working out of his dormitory room on an online network
aimed initially at connecting Harvard students.
FEBRUARY: Thefacebook.com is launched by Zuckerberg and three Harvard
roommates and classmates: Chris Hughes, Eduardo Saverin and Dustin Moskovitz.
MAY: Zuckerberg moves to Silicon Valley and decides not to return to
Harvard for the fall semester.
JULY: The new company receives its first investment: $500,000 from PayPal
co-founder Peter Thiel.
— 2005 —
AUGUST: Thefacebook.com officially changes its name to Facebook.
— 2006 —
FEBRUARY: Viacom offers to buy Facebook for $1.5 billion but is turned
down.
SEPTEMBER: Yahoo makes an unsuccessful $1 billion bid for the social
network. Facebook adds the “News Feed” and opens up to anyone over the age of
13.
— 2007 —
SEPTEMBER: Facebook launches a $10 million fund to provide money to
companies or individuals who want to build applications.
OCTOBER: Microsoft takes a $240 million stake in Facebook, which has 50
million members.
DECEMBER: Zuckerberg apologizes for “mistakes” in rolling out a new ad
platform called Beacon that tracked purchases made by Facebook members and
let their friends know what they had bought.
— 2008 —
FEBRUARY: A $65 million settlement is reached with twins Tyler and Cameron
Winklevoss over allegations that Zuckerberg stole their idea for Facebook
while at Harvard. Facebook launches a Spanish site.
MARCH: Sheryl Sandberg, a top Google executive, is hired as Facebook’s
chief operating officer. French and German Facebook sites are launched.
APRIL: Facebook dethrones MySpace to become the world’s most popular social
networking website.
AUGUST: Facebook membership hits 100 million.
— 2009 —
MARCH: Facebook launches its first mobile application.
MAY: Russian Internet company Digital Sky Technologies invests $200 million
in Facebook.
DECEMBER: In one of many privacy flaps, activists ask the US Federal Trade
Commission to look into whether Facebook deceived users over protection of
their personal data.
— 2010 —
MAY: Pakistan blocks access to Facebook over a competition encouraging
users to post caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
JULY: Membership hits 500 million. Lady Gaga becomes the first with 10
million fans on Facebook, breaking the barrier a few days ahead of then-
president Barack Obama.
OCTOBER: “The Social Network,” David Fincher’s story of the origins of
Facebook, hits movie theaters. Nominated for eight Oscars, it takes three:
best adapted screenplay, original score and film editing.
DECEMBER: Time magazine names Zuckerberg as Person of the Year for
“transforming the way we live our lives every day.”
— 2011 —
JANUARY: A private share offering raises $1.5 billion from investors and
values Facebook at $50 billion.
FEBRUARY: Facebook announces plans to move from Palo Alto to a sprawling
campus once home to Sun Microsystems in nearby Menlo Park.
SEPTEMBER: Timeline pages are introduced that let Facebook users turn their
profiles into interactive digital scrap books that tell the stories of their
lives.
NOVEMBER: Facebook agrees to tighten privacy policies and submit to
external audits in a settlement with US regulators.
— 2012 —
JANUARY: Facebook files for an initial public offering.
MAY: Some $16 billion is raised in the IPO, giving the company a market
value of $104 billion. A hoodie-clad Zuckerberg remotely rings the Nasdaq
bell from Facebook’s California headquarters on the first trading day.
AUGUST: Facebook closes a deal to buy the popular photo-sharing app
Instagram for $1 billion
SEPTEMBER: Shares in Facebook slide more than 50 percent from the IPO price
of $38 amid fears on growth and profitability, but the slump will prove
transitory.
OCTOBER: Facebook membership tops one billion.
— 2013 —
JANUARY: Facebook launches a “social graph” search engine to find posts on
the network, in collaboration with Microsoft.
DECEMBER: Facebook is added to the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, which
represents the largest publicly traded US firms. Video ads debut in Facebook
feeds.
— 2014 —
FEBRUARY: Facebook buys smartphone messaging platform WhatsApp in a cash
and stock deal valued at $19 billion.
MARCH: Facebook buys virtual reality headset maker Oculus in a deal valued
at $2 billion. Zuckerberg predicts VR will be the next major computing
platform.
— 2015 —
Facebook moves into its new Frank Gehry-designed headquarters in Silicon
Valley, with a rooftop park and “the largest open floor plan in the world.”
— 2016 —
NOVEMBER: Facebook and other social networks are embroiled in controversy
over manipulation of online platforms by Russia to sow division and sway
elections.
— 2017 —
JUNE: Facebook tops two billion monthly users.
SEPTEMBER: Facebook reveals hundreds of fake profiles evidently
orchestrated by Russia bought ads to fuel political tensions ahead of the
recent presidential election.
— 2018 —
MARCH: Scandal breaks that British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica
stealthily harvested personal data of millions of Facebook users and used it
for political purposes including helping the campaign that resulted in the
election of US President Donald Trump.
APRIL: Zuckerberg is grilled in US Congress over Facebook’s handling of
user data and the social network being manipulated to undermine democracy.
JULY: Facebook’s value based on the price of its shares reaches an all-time
high of nearly $628 billion.
– 2019 –
JANUARY: As Facebook nears its 15th anniversary, Zuckerberg pledges “public
discussions about the future of technology in society” in his latest effort
to address heightened concerns about social media.