JOURNAL 3

THE HISTORY OF FACEBOOK

         Two weeks ago, I watched the film “The Social Network” with my friend. Then I decided to choose ‘the history of Facebook’ as my topic for my journal. At first, the film was a little confusing, so I slept in the second part of it. In the following day, we began to watch it again, but this time I watched it carefully and didn’t sleep.

         We all know “Facebook” and use actively. At the first time I began to use Facebook, I wondered who founded it. However, I didn’t make any attempt to learn this until watching the film “The Social Network”. I realized that there were a lot of steps to today’s Facebook.

         The first thing I learned from the film is that Facebook is the second website founded by Mark Zuckerburg. Facemash which Zuckerburg founded first is a website that includes pictures and information about the students of Harvard University. Because Zuckerburg took this information without management’s permission and broadcasted it, the website is closed by the management. After this event, Zuckerburg left the university for a year and created a website including photos, personal information and interests of users. With the support of his roommates, Zuckerburg began to encode “Facebook” which was “The Facebook” first.

         Zuckerburg finished encoding Facebook in 2004 and opened it for use just for the students of Harvard University, but in a short time Facebook was heard from Boston to high schools and companies. After this event, Zuckerburg decided to open Facebook usage for everyone. In 2006, Facebook announced that everyone (+13) with an e-mail address can sign up for “Facebook”.

         While creating Facebook, Mark Zuckerburg wasn’t alone. His roommates Andrew MCCOLLUM and Eduardo SAVERIN helped him during Facebook’s installation stage. Today, Mark Zuckerburg is working as Facebook’s founder and CEO, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes are working as assistants of founder, Sheryl Sandberg is working as COO, and Marc Samwer is working as inventor.

         Facebook is free for users and its revenue comes from banner and sponsor links. In 2007, Facebook let the adverts and thanks to this application users can give advertisements free of charge. This success of Facebook was heard from the companies and they wanted to purchase Facebook; however Mark Zuckerburg was determined not to sell it. In my opinion, maybe Facebook’s success comes from Zuckerburg’s determination.