users of millions 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2,500 FACEBOOK USERS 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 Facebook’s user count has grown steadily through the late 2010s With more than two billion users by 2018 the company now counts more than a quarter of the people on Earth as users of its service A GLOBAL SOCIAL NETWORK A project that began in a college dormitory originally meant to help college students connect with each other averaged 1 45 billion active users each day in 2018 and employed more than 27,000 people 10 Based in Menlo Park California Facebook has offices in 12 other US cities and more than 30 countries Although a user must be at least 13 to open an account children between ages 10
eight and 12 told researchers in 2011 that Facebook was their second most often visited site To include more of them Facebook introduced an application including parental controls called Messenger Kids This would help Facebook capture a fresh crop of teen and adult users in the future The social network’s success has made Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg one of the wealthiest people in the United States As of June 2018 he was worth approximately 79 billion 11 Facebook has become a household name It is loved and hated by people of every age group and background And at nearly every step of the way it has been awash in controversy 11
CHAPTER TWO 12
THE BIRTH OF FACEBOOK facebook began with a college student Mark Zuckerberg a Harvard University and his friends Nineteen-year-old psychology major couldn’t stop fiddling with computer projects whether it was a program to help students pass a history final exam or one to help them connect socially The latter started in a cluttered college dorm would earn Zuckerberg billions In 2003 with his second year barely begun Zuckerberg invented Course Match a program that let his classmates choose their classes based on who else was taking them That way they could raise their chances of getting to know someone who had caught their eye Zuckerberg’s next project was Facemash Like most schools Harvard took pictures of new students It then sent collections of the photos to students Zuckerberg left worked with Harvard classmate Chris Hughes on the early version of Facebook 13
