History and Origin of Facebook
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| Mark Zuckerberg |
Zuckerberg launched Facebook in February 2004 with the help of Harvard students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes. Their fellow Harvard students were among the first to sign up. However, the app quickly took off reaching students at other universities near Harvard and later all universities in the U.S. (I found this information interesting because today many people in Gen Z view Facebook as a platform that older generations utilize more so than those in college.)
In September 2006, none-college students and anyone with an email could become Facebook users, greatly expanding the platform’s audience. In 2008, Facebook, which originally was only a website, became an app on the iPhone. This was a result of Apple creating the App Store that same year. The company continued to grow and filed to become public in 2012.
According to A brief history of Facebook as a media text: The development of an empty structure by Niels Brugger at the Center for Internet Studies at Aarhus University, the “two main elements of Facebook” are a person’s profile and their network. He wrote that a profile displays a user’s information, and a network is the group of other users a person can connect with on the app.
Facebook today is known as a space where people can post photos, videos, and life updates on their feed. They can "tag" people in their posts, and tagged people can allow posts they are tagged in to appear on their own feed. Facebook has grown to include new features that were not a part of the application's original design, such as Facebook Marketplace. Marketplace is a spot on the app where people can buy and sell items, similar to eBay or Craigslist.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia
History of Instagram
Instagram was created in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, two Stanford graduates. The idea for Instagram started with a platform created by Kevin Systrom called Burbn, and yes it was named because of his love for the alcoholic beverage. Burbn allowed users to post “check-ins” with photos based on their location. Kevin along with Mike Krieger reworked the program into what we know today as Instagram.
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| Mike Krieger (right) and Kevin Systrom (left) |
Unlike Facebook, Instagram started as a mobile app from the beginning. Facebook was not originally created as an app because the Apple App Store did not launch until 2008. Instagram was created two years after the App Store's launch.
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| The Instagram Icon Over Time |
Although Instagram and Facebook had similarities, Instagram was much more focused on images. (Keep in mind that today people associate Instagram and Facebook together because they are now a part of the same company, but at the time, they were two completely separate applications.) Instagram was created with three main features surrounding user’s posts, which were photos, comments, and likes. Users could post a photo, and other users could like and comment on the post. Instagram did involve a profile and network like Facebook did, but they were slightly different. Facebook was more focused on personal connections, and Instagram was a place where people could have lots of followers that they did not even know. (Facebook refers to connections as "friends," and Instagram refers to connections as "followers" or someone they are "following.")
In April 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 Billion.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Instagram
Meta
In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the Facebook company, re-branded the company under the name Meta. When he announced the creation of Meta, Zuckerberg said, “Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future. Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and identity on what we’re building toward.” Metaverse refers to a virtual 3D space companies are looking to grow in the future. This rebranding was seen as a way for the company to grow and expand.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2295438-why-has-facebook-changed-its-name-to-meta-and-what-is-the-metaverse/
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| Meta Icon |
Today Facebook and Instagram are both owned by Meta, and Zuckerberg is still the companies' CEO. I look forward to seeing how the company grows and evolves in the future, and I hope that you learned something new about the history of Facebook, Instagram, and Meta.
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