Facebook, which started as a Harvard-only social networking site called thefacebook in 2004, has become one of the largest and most widely used social media platforms in the world. But who was the very first person to sign up for an account on Facebook?
The Origins of Facebook
Facebook was founded in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg along with fellow Harvard students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. At the time, Zuckerberg was a 19-year-old sophomore who created the site as a fun side project initially called thefacebook.com. The idea behind the site was to allow Harvard students to create profiles and connect with each other online.
Thefacebook officially launched on February 4, 2004. In the early days, use of the site was limited to Harvard students who had a harvard.edu email address. The site became incredibly popular very quickly, with half of all Harvard undergraduates signing up within the first month.
In March 2004, Facebook expanded to allow students from Stanford, Columbia, and Yale to join. It gradually opened up to more universities over the next year, eventually allowing high school students to join in 2005. In 2006, the site was opened up to the general public, no longer requiring users to have a university or high school email address.
The First Facebook Users
So who were the very first people to create Facebook profiles? Given that Facebook started as a closed network limited to Harvard students, it’s likely that the first users were Zuckerberg’s roommates and fellow Harvard classmates.
According to multiple sources, the first few users included:
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Dustin Moskovitz – Zuckerberg’s roommate
- Chris Hughes – one of Zuckerberg’s friends & founding member of Facebook
- Eduardo Saverin – founding member of Facebook
- Andrew McCollum – Zuckerberg’s friend & founding member of Facebook
- Adam D’Angelo – Zuckerberg’s friend from high school
Zuckerberg, Moskovitz, Hughes, Saverin, and McCollum are all listed as founders of Facebook. So it’s likely they were among the very first to sign up. D’Angelo was also an early user who helped test the initial version.
Mark Zuckerberg – User #1
Most sources point to Mark Zuckerberg as the absolute first Facebook user. As the founder and creator of the website, he would have been the very first person to register an account and create a profile.
On February 4, 2004 at around noon, Zuckerberg added the first profile on what was then called thefacebook.com. He manually entered profile info for himself and some of his friends, creating the first connections on the fledgling social network.
As user #1, Zuckerberg’s original profile URL was facebook.com/1. His profile stated that he was a student at Harvard studying computer science. Early screenshots of Zuckerberg’s sparse original profile show only basic info like his name, school, and relationship status.
Being the first Facebook user gave Zuckerberg the coveted username “@zuck” which he still uses to this day. His profile also shows the initial registration date of February 4, 2004, forever memorializing him as the first person to ever create a Facebook account.
The Early Days of Facebook
After adding his own profile, Zuckerberg manually added profiles for his friends starting with his roommates. These first few users made up the test group that tried out Facebook and provided feedback in the early days.
On the first day the site launched at Harvard, more than half of the undergraduate population signed up. By the end of the month, that number had risen to three-quarters of all undergrads with over 10,000 students registered.
The exclusive nature of Facebook’s initial launch contributed to its popularity and quick rise. Requiring users to have a harvard.edu email address made it an intimate social club of sorts. The demand and buzz surrounding the new site grew rapidly by word of mouth.
Within the first month, the “the” was dropped and the company was officially named Facebook. By June 2004, over 15,000 students across Harvard were registered users. Facebook then began expanding to other Ivy League schools including Yale and Stanford.
The First Week of Facebook
The initial group of first users in Facebook’s first week of existence included:
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Dustin Moskovitz
- Eduardo Saverin
- Chris Hughes
- Andrew McCollum
- Adam D’Angelo
- Arie Hasit
- Wang Weixing
- Alfred Lui
- Kirk Ostrovsky
These were Zuckerberg’s friends and roommates who helped test Facebook in its initial launch. Hasit, Lui, Ostrovsky, and Weixing were members of Harvard’s Debate Society with Zuckerberg who were invited to join during the first week.
Once the site opened up to the broader Harvard population, adoption and registration ramped up very quickly. The exclusivity of requiring a harvard.edu email made it an instant hit on campus. The initial group of first users will forever be remembered as helping launch one of the largest online social networks in history that connected billions of people.
Expanding Beyond Harvard
By March 2004, Facebook had established itself at Harvard and started expanding to other Ivy League universities. It launched at Columbia University, Stanford, and Yale that month allowing students with edu email addresses from those schools to register.
Over the next year, Facebook gradually expanded to allow access to more universities including:
- Dartmouth – May 2004
- Princeton – May 2004
- MIT – September 2004
- Boston University – September 2004
- Emory – September 2004
- Georgetown – October 2004
- NYU – October 2004
- Duke – November 2004
- Northwestern – November 2004
- More Ivy League and top US colleges in 2004-2005
By May 2005, Facebook had support for over 800 college networks. High school networks were included starting in September 2005. Finally in 2006, Facebook opened registration to anyone with a valid email address. This transformed Facebook from a closed college-only network to a mass social media site.
Today, anyone over 13 with an email address can sign up for Facebook and create their own profile. What started as a simple Harvard-exclusive social network now has over 2.5 billion active users across the globe. But it all traces back to Mark Zuckerberg creating that very first profile on February 4, 2004.
The First Non-Student User
For the first year and half, Facebook enrollment was limited to students at partner universities. The first non-student account was created in July 2005 for actor and entrepreneur Jared Leto.
Leto attended an event at Stanford University in 2005 and wanted to look up some students he had met there afterwards. He asked his business partner if there was a way for non-students to access Facebook, which was still limited to approved universities at the time.
His partner emailed a Facebook engineer and asked if Leto could be granted access even though he wasn’t a student. The engineer obliged and manually created an alumni account for Leto, making him the first non-student user on Facebook.
Leto’s early VIP account on Facebook preceded the site opening up to everyone in 2006. Thanks to his celebrity status, he became the first person without a .edu email address to be granted access. He continues to maintain an active Facebook account today.
Conclusion
Facebook has come a long way since Mark Zuckerberg launched it from his Harvard dorm room in February 2004. What started as a closed college network with a few hundred users now connects over a quarter of the world’s population.
But it all traces back to one person – Mark Zuckerberg as user #1 who registered the first Facebook account and profile. Along with his roommates and Harvard friends, Zuckerberg kickstarted the Facebook revolution and a new era of social media.
Facebook rapidly expanded from Harvard to universities nationwide in its first year. Actor Jared Leto then became the first non-student user in 2005 thanks to his celebrity status. Finally in 2006, Facebook opened up to the general public to become the global social network we know today.
While the landscape has changed dramatically since those early days, the founding history and first users of Facebook will never be forgotten. They helped launch one of the most important and impactful social platforms in modern history.
References
Here are some references used in researching this article: