What was Facebook originally called?

Facebook is one of the most widely used social media platforms in the world today, with over 2 billion monthly active users as of the fourth quarter of 2018. However, Facebook was not always known by this name. When Facebook first launched in 2004, it had a different name entirely.

The original name of Facebook was Facemash. Facemash was a hot-or-not type rating site created by Mark Zuckerberg when he was a sophomore computer science major at Harvard University in 2003.

Zuckerberg created Facemash as a way for Harvard students to compare and rate the attractiveness of their classmates. The site scraped photos of students from the online facebooks of nine Harvard houses and allowed users to give a hot or not rating to each one.

The site went viral on campus but was controversial and shut down by Harvard administrators after just two days. Zuckerberg faced disciplinary action from Harvard for breaching security, violating copyrights and individual privacy with the site.

Despite this inauspicious start, the popularity of Facemash made Zuckerberg realize the potential for creating a social networking site for Harvard students. This directly led to the creation of Facebook as we know it today.

The Origins of Facebook

After the Facemash experiment, Zuckerberg began working on a new website called thefacebook.com with his roommates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The site launched on February 4, 2004 and was initially limited only to Harvard students.

Thefacebook.com was created as a social directory that allowed users to create a profile, upload photos and connect with classmates. The name thefacebook was chosen to refer to the printed directories of student faces and profiles handed out to freshmen at American universities.

Some key facts about the early days of thefacebook include:

Within 24 hours of launch, over 1,200 Harvard students had signed up for accounts on thefacebook.com.

The site was quickly opened up to other Boston universities including Boston University, Boston College and MIT by March 2004.
Membership was initially limited to students with a .edu email address from a supported university.
Some early features included friend lists, groups, and photo albums.

The initial idea and funding for creating thefacebook.com came from Zuckerberg himself. He paid for and designed much of the initial site himself with help from his roommates Moskovitz and Hughes.

Once the site started rapidly gaining users, Zuckerberg sought venture capital funding to scale it. In the summer of 2004, Zuckerberg received $500,000 in seed funding from angel investor Peter Thiel. This allowed him to hire programmers and move to Palo Alto, California.

Thefacebook Becomes Facebook

By 2005, thefacebook.com had already become wildly popular on college campuses across America. At this point, the company decided to shorten its name to the one word “Facebook” that is so globally recognized today.

Some key milestones in Facebook’s transition from thefacebook to Facebook include:

In June 2005, Facebook dropped the “the” from its name and acquired the domain name facebook.com.
In August 2005, Facebook received $12.7 million in funding from Accel Partners and officially became a company.

By September 2005, Facebook had expanded to over 800 college campuses and added photos and relationship status options.
In October 2005, high school networks were added to allow signup from users with an .edu email address.
In December 2005, Facebook allowed work networks for the first time for companies like Apple and Microsoft.

By the end of 2005, Facebook had around 5.5 million users. But rapid growth was still to come as Facebook opened up network by network beyond just colleges and schools.

The Growth of Facebook

In 2006, Facebook took major steps toward becoming the global social media giant that it is today by opening up registration to everyone. Some key expansions included:

In May 2006, Facebook opened signup to anyone aged 13 and older with a valid email address.

In September 2006, new features like News Feed and Mini Feed were added to share real-time updates about friends’ activities.
By the end of 2006, Facebook had 12 million active users.
In 2007, Microsoft purchased a 1.6% stake in Facebook for $240 million valuating the company at around $15 billion.

By July 2010, Facebook had over 500 million registered members worldwide.

Facebook’s user growth skyrocketed due to these expansions beyond its initial college-only base.

Other major milestones in Facebook’s growth included:

In 2012, Facebook held its initial public offering (IPO) which raised $16 billion and valued the company at $104 billion.
In 2017, Facebook reached 2 billion monthly active users worldwide.
In 2022, Facebook changed its company name to Meta Platforms reflecting a focus on the metaverse.

Today, Facebook has over 2.9 billion monthly active users across its family of apps including Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. It remains the world’s largest social media network.

Key Names Associated With Facebook’s Origins

While Mark Zuckerberg is the most famous name associated with Facebook since he co-founded it and still runs Meta today, there were several other key people involved in the early phases of Facebook’s development:

Eduardo Saverin – Co-founder and business partner who worked on the initial business model and funding. Later sued Zuckerberg for diluting his stake.

Dustin Moskovitz – Zuckerberg’s Harvard roommate who became Facebook’s first CTO and later left to co-found Asana.
Chris Hughes – A Harvard roommate who served as Facebook’s first spokesperson and left in 2007.
Sean Parker – Became Facebook’s first president after advising Zuckerberg informally and securing early venture capital.

Sheryl Sandberg – Joined Facebook as COO in 2008 and helped rapidly expand its business side. Still serving as Meta COO.

Zuckerberg has retained control as Facebook’s majority shareholder and CEO (now Meta CEO and Chairman) since its founding. But he relied heavily on early partners like Saverin, Moskovitz and Hughes, as well as later executives like Parker and Sandberg, to help grow Facebook from a dorm room project into a billion dollar company.

Original Facebook Funding

In Facebook’s earliest days as a fledgling Harvard student startup, funding came directly from co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his supportive friend Eduardo Saverin.

Zuckerberg initially funded the site servers, development and operations himself using money he received from clients he did programming work for. Saverin helped him raise some additional capital from a few other student investors.

But once Facebook started expanding beyond Harvard in 2004, Zuckerberg knew he would need much more significant funding sources to keep up with the growth. Some key early funding milestones included:

Summer 2004 – Peter Thiel invests $500,000 in seed funding.

April 2005 – Accel Partners invest $12.7 million in Series A funding.
May 2005 – Greylock Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and others invest $27.5 million.

By 2007, investment from Microsoft and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing took Facebook’s total venture capital funding up to around $60 million.

Later funding rounds raised billions more in additional capital from top investors to finance Facebook’s rapid expansion right up to its 2012 IPO.

Original Facebook Features

The initial feature set launched with thefacebook.com in 2004 was much more limited than the wide range of features and services Facebook offers today. Some core original features included:

Profile page – List your name, photo, contact info, interests, relationship status, and more.

Friends list – Create connections to classmates and Facebook friends.
The Wall – Post messages, notes, links and update your status.
Groups – Create and join interest-based member groups.

Photo albums – Upload and tag photos.
Events – Invite friends to upcoming events.
The News Feed – Added in 2006 to show real-time friend activity updates.

Additional major features were added over time including:

Messaging – Added chatting in 2008.
Pages – For businesses, brands and organizations in 2007.

Like button – Added ability to “Like” posts and comments in 2009.
Apps and Games – Added third-party app platform in 2010.
Timeline – User profile redesign added in 2011.

Trending topics – Real-time feed of viral topics added 2013.
Live video streaming – Facebook Live added in 2016.
Stories – Ephemeral sharing feature added in 2017.

Today, Facebook has become a one-stop platform for socializing, messaging, discussing news and current events, discovering content, playing games, shopping and much more. But its roots lie in simple features like profiles, friends, groups, photos and sharing updates.

Original User Base

Facebook’s initial user base when it first launched in 2004 was limited exclusively to Harvard students. Thefacebook.com was only available to users with a harvard.edu email address for the first month.

Within the first month, almost three-quarters of Harvard’s undergraduates with email accounts had registered on the site. This initial user base of around 4,000 students gave the site strong enough momentum to begin expanding.

By March 2004, Facebook had expanded to other Boston-area elite universities including MIT, Boston University and Boston College. It gradually opened up network by network to other Ivy League schools and top universities before reaching 800 college networks by September 2005.

Some key stats on Facebook’s early college-only user base:

More than half of all students at supported colleges signed up within a month of Facebook launching at their school.

85% of students at Facebook-enabled colleges were users by the end of 2004.
In October 2005, Facebook allowed high school students with .edu emails to join.
College users remained a core base even as Facebook began opening up to non-students in 2006.

Facebook’s exclusive roots as a private Harvard social club helped it quickly gain traction and expand through elite university networks thanks to word-of-mouth viral growth.

Alternatives at the Time

When Facebook first emerged around 2004, there were already some other social networks and online communication platforms that had gained traction:

Myspace – Founded in 2003, it rose to be the largest social network until Facebook overtook it.

Friendster – One of the first major social networking sites launched in 2002.
Xanga – Blogging and social networking site popular in the early 2000s.
BlackPlanet – Early social network focused on the African-American community.

LiveJournal – Influential early blogging and social networking site started in 1999.
Classmates.com – Allowed users to connect with former school classmates when it launched in 1995.
MySpace – Leading social network focused on music, pop culture and teens.

Hi5 – Popular early social network started in 2003 with over 60 million users at its peak.

However, none of these early competitors focused specifically on college students or offered the same kind of walled garden social experience as thefacebook.com. By requiring a .edu email to join, Facebook created an intimate space that made users comfortable sharing and interacting.

The initial exclusivity gave Facebook a competitive edge over public networks like Myspace in the college demographic. And its roots on college campuses fueled viral word-of-mouth growth that allowed Facebook to rapidly expand and overtake rival networks within a few years.

Reactions to the Early Facebook

The initial reaction to Facebook from Harvard students was enthusiasm about using the site. Its immediate popularity on campus revealed demand for an online college social network.

Some key reactions from Facebook’s early student users included:

Excitement over profiles, photos and ability to connect with classmates online.

Adoption of Facebook language like poking, adding as a friend, etc. into everyday speech.
Interest in comparing profiles and friend networks with classmates.
Enjoyment of applications like comparing users’ attractiveness.

Intrigue over the mysterious identity of the site’s creator.

However, Facebook also saw some early controversy and backlash, especially from administrators:

Concerns over privacy of information shared like relationship status.

Complaints from students whose photos were posted without consent.
Criticism of competitive, exclusive social environment that ranked attractiveness.
Accusations of sexism due to “Facemash” ranking women by looks.

Disapproval from Harvard faculty over site promoting gossiping.

Despite some criticism, enthusiasm from Harvard students was largely positive and kickstarted Facebook’s rapid growth. But privacy issues and social effects would remain ongoing concerns surrounding the network as it expanded.

Impact on Communication and Culture

Facebook’s cultural impact from its beginnings as a closed Harvard social network to a global phenomenon today has been significant. Some major impacts include:

Made social networking mainstream and part of everyday life.
Changed how people interact and communicate online.
Created a new common online language of social media terms.

Allowed new ways of sharing personal news, photos, interests.
Enabled events and groups to easily organize on a large scale.
Let people connect in new ways with old friends and new contacts.

Raised concerns over privacy, screen addiction, and mental health.
Opened up marketing, business and political outreach opportunities.
Influenced user experience expectations for online services.

Facebook has connected people around the world in unprecedented ways. Today it is hard to imagine life without social media, but before Facebook this type of always-on networking did not exist.

Despite valid criticisms and concerns, Facebook’s cultural impact on communication, relationships and business is undeniable. It shaped life online for an entire generation.

Conclusion

Facebook’s origin as a closed college network called thefacebook.com gave no hint as to how influential its reach would eventually become. Within a few years, Facebook spread like wildfire from its Harvard dorm room beginnings to make social networking a central part of life for billions worldwide.

Key milestones covered in Facebook’s early history include its Facemash predecessor, the pivotal move from thefacebook.com to Facebook.com, opening the network beyond colleges to worldwide users, its Series A funding, and impactful features like News Feed.

Understanding Facebook’s origins provides perspective on how today’s tech giants often start small before capturing the public imagination on a massive scale. The early internal culture of these companies infuses the products and services hundreds of millions now use daily.

While Facebook has seen its share of controversy, no one can deny it irrevocably changed the way people across generations and countries communicate. It left cultural impact and language that will likely persist even as technology continues evolving in new directions.