Facebook was founded in Cambridge, MA on February 4, 2004. Facebook had its initial public offering (IPO) eight years later in February of 2012.
Facebook At Harvard
Facebook was originally named TheFaceBook and it was developed by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. The first use of the FaceBook was on the Harvard campus and it was limited only to Harvard students. Soon the FaceBook spread like wild fire around the other major U.S. Universities. Mark Zuckerberg dropped the Harvard and pursued his Facebook dream to become one of the 4th most-trafficked websites in the world with more than 90 million active users by 2008. In 2019 Mark Zuckerberg finds himself alongside the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos as the most powerful and wealthy people in the world and in technology specifically.
The FaceBook website is built on PHP-MySQL technology and it is probably the most popular PHP website ever built. Interesting fact is that the facebook.com domain was purchased for $200,000 and FaceBook has more than 24 million photos uploaded daily.
Facebook Ads and Privacy
Facebook has encountered multiple issues related to spying on users and the way its ads perform and are generated. There was the Cambridge Analytica scandal where it showed how Facebook and Big Tech are collecting data on users and spying and profiting from it. This issue and series of events brought to the forefront the government alleged crackdown on Big Tech and also the question of why and how users simply don’t hold and sell their own data to Big Tech instead of the reverse?
Big Tech And Department Of Justice
Right alongside Facebook in the cross hairs of the DOJ and other governments are mammoth tech companies with the ability to spy on users and profit from that such as Google, Twitter, and Amazon. This is heating up more and more just as more new entrants try to counter Big tech such as Flipboard and DuckDuckGo.
Facebook and Libra
Facebook is attempting to dive into financial services by creating its own cryptocurrency ecosystem with Libra. Google is also launching a Google checking account, so the battle is on for the future financial system and customers.
