Facebook is 15: the most important milestones in the history of the world's most popular social network

They are a lot. Very numerous To be precise, there are 2,320 million active users per month on Facebook. And the popularity does not come alone: ​​last year, the company billed $ 55,013 million, of which 93% is advertising revenue. This is how the 15th anniversary of the world's most famous social network gets its birthday.

The computer giant remains unbeatable despite the scandals that have occurred recently. The platform and its promise to connect the world continue to be seductive results. At least that seems to indicate the numbers.

"It's an online directory that connects people through universities." This is how he described the nascent portal Mark Zuckerberg during an interview in 2004. It was only the beginning of a maelstrom that he did not have. had never imagined.

As he explained in this interview, he expected to reach "400 or 550 students". I did not imagine that fifteen years later, a quarter of the world's population would be in this virtual community preparing for it.

The Facebook, as it originally called, was published on February 4, 2004. In the beginning, it was only available to Harvard students, then expanded to other universities such as Columbia , Stanford and Yale. Then they came to the others. By the end of this first year, it already had a million users.

Here is an overview of the main stages of Facebook's history:

On February 4, 2004, Facebook was born. The site is starting to grow and the company is opening its offices in Palo Alto, California.

On September 1, 2004, the Facebook wall was launched, characteristic of the social network that allows to leave the public messages behind, like a kind of virtual parade.

On May 1, 2005, the network, designed to be used only by Harvard students, expands to more than 800 universities. In September of this year, secondary schools are also incorporated.

On September 20 of the same year, TheFacebook, as it was called at the time, simply called Facebook. On October 1, the photo feature is added and arrives at the end of the year with 6 million users.

On May 1, 2006, work networks are included and on September 26, the portal opens to the world. In just one year, the number of users is doubled.

On June 22, 2007, the video function was launched and in October, the mobile version arrived. In this way, Facebook officially disembarks on mobile phones. By the end of the year, the social network is recording 58 million users.

In 2008 comes the Facebook chat, the page is redrawn and the button "I like" appears. A year later, the company moved to new offices in Palo Alto.

Facebook begins 2010 with 360 million users and opens its first data center in Oregon. In the same year, the Groups function was announced and the profile page was updated.

In 2011, the video call appears, the Biography feature, a Facebook version for iPad and the move to Menlo Park.

In 2012, Facebook buys Instagram for $ 1,000 million. The company, increasingly large and prosperous, made its first public offering of shares in May. Finish the year with over a billion users.

The following year, the platform announces the opening of a new data center in Iowa and launches on Instagram the video function and the direct messages.

In 2014, Facebook Mentions is launched, the Save function appears and the tool to buy the state of security of the service. The Internet.org application is also developed, it will then be called Free Basics. It is an badociation between the business and Internet providers, which seeks to improve connectivity in developing countries.

In 2015, video calls are added to Messenger, instant items are launched, Moments and Facebook Lite, the lightest version of the site, designed for countries with connectivity issues.

It also announces the arrival of live broadcasts which, at that time, were only accessible to the public on Facebook Mentions. And the incorporation of 360 videos on the platform.

In 2016, the platform provoked reactions, that is to say the possibility of adding different emoticons to show the sensations generated by publications: 360 photos are incorporated and the social network announces its infrastructure project. telecommunications.

On July 21, 2016, the first flight Aquila is announced, a solar drone designed to bring connectivity to remote areas. Two years later, the company would abandon this project. At the end of the year, MarketPlace is introduced, an electronic commerce platform within the social network so that users can buy and sell products; and Workplace, a collaboration platform designed to connect business and organization employees.

In March 2018, the Cambridge Analytica scandal erupted. Christopher Wylie, a former employee of this consulting firm, said the company had obtained information from millions of Facebook users without permission, ie, it violated the rules of using social networks. And with this data, he would have generated political announcements to promote the Trump presidential campaign as well as the Brexit of the United Kingdom.

As a result of this incident, the social network was prosecuted in England and the United States. Zuckerberg has appeared before Congress and is committed to making changes to improve the protection of users' personal information.

Later, changes were made to the configurations to make it easier for users to manage their personal data. At the end of last year, the same company announced twice that it detected and fixed vulnerabilities on the platform.

According to Apple, Facebook would have benefited from the developer program that allows certain companies, such as Menlo Park, to test and distribute specific applications for their employees.

In these cases, employees may use third-party services to download beta versions of applications that are not available to the general public. Apple does not review or approve these applications in the same manner as with other applications published in the App Store, as they are intended to be for internal use only for employees of certain companies .

However, Facebook has used this program for people outside the company to download the application called Facebook Research. Apple considered this a violation of its internal rules and revoked Wednesday this preferential certificate for companies. But one day later, Apple returned this permission.

For its part, as soon as this information was released, Facebook said that the program was never secret and that it did not spy on users, because all those who participated knew the details and actually had to sign a prior consent.

The truth is that beyond the scandals and questions that the giant Menlo Park has gone through in recent times, users are still turning to this huge virtual community that is Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. All platforms of the same company.