— 2004 —
JANUARY: Mark Zuckerberg, a 19-year-old student at the University of Harvarda computer expert, starts working from his bedroom on an online site initially aimed at connecting college students. Harvard.
FEBRUARY: Zuckerberg and three college buddies – Chris Hughes, Eduardo Saverin and Dustin Moskovitz – launch Thefacebook.com.
JULY: The new company receives its first investment: $500,000 from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
— 2005 —
AUGUST: Thefacebook.com changes its name to Facebook.
— 2006 —
FEBRUARY: Viacom offers to buy Facebook for $1.5 billion, but the offer is rejected.
SEPTEMBER: Yahoo makes another unsuccessful offer, for 1,000 million dollars. Facebook adds “News” and is open to anyone over the age of 13.
— 2007 —
SEPTEMBER: Facebook launches a fund of 10 million dollars for companies or individuals who want to create applications.
OCTOBER: Microsoft buys a $240 million stake in Facebook, which has 50 million members.
DECEMBER: Zuckerberg apologizes for “mistakes” in implementing an ad platform called Beacon that tracked purchases made by Facebook members and told their friends what they bought.
— 2008 —
FEBRUARY: Twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss settle with the company for $65 million after accusing Zuckerberg of stealing their Facebook idea while he was in Harvard. Facebook launches its site in Spanish.
APRIL: Facebook dethrones MySpace by becoming the most popular social network in the world.
AUGUST: Facebook reaches 100 million members.
— 2009 —
MARCH: Facebook launches its first mobile application.
DECEMBER: Activists ask the Federal Trade Commission of the United States to analyze whether Facebook misled users about the protection of their personal data.
— 2010 —
JULY: Facebook reaches 500 million users. Singer Lady Gaga becomes the first person with 10 million followers on Facebook, breaking the barrier of then US President Barack Obama.
OCTOBER: “Social Network,” David Fincher’s film about the origins of Facebook, hits theaters. Of eight Oscar nominations, he won three: adapted screenplay, original music and editing.
DECEMBER: Time magazine names Zuckerberg ‘Person of the Year’ for “transforming the way we live our lives every day.”
— 2012 —
JANUARY: Facebook announces that it will go public.
MAY: In its Initial Public Offering (IPO), it raises about 16,000 million dollars, which gives it a market value of 104,000 million. A Zuckerberg dressed in a sports suit rings the Nasdaq bell remotely, from Facebook’s headquarters in California.
AUGUST: Facebook closes a deal to buy the photo app Instagram for $1 billion.
SEPTEMBER: Shares in Facebook lose more than 50% of the price of the IPO of 38 dollars, amid fears about growth and profitability, but the fall will be transitory.
OCTOBER: Facebook exceeds 1,000 million members.
– 2014 –
FEBRUARY: Facebook buys the messaging platform WhatsApp in a cash and stock transaction, worth $19 billion.
— 2015 —
Facebook moves into its new Frank Gehry-designed headquarters in Silicon Valley.
— 2016 —
NOVEMBER: Facebook and other social networks become embroiled in controversy over Russia’s manipulation of online platforms to sow division and influence US elections.
— 2017 —
JUNE: Facebook exceeds 2,000 million monthly users.
— 2018 —
MARCH: A scandal breaks when it is discovered that the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica stealthily collected personal data from millions of Facebook users and used it for political purposes, including helping the campaign of Donald Trump, who was elected president of the United States.
APRIL: Zuckerberg is questioned in the US Congress about handling user data on Facebook and manipulating the social network to undermine democracy.
– 2021 –
OCTOBER: Zuckerberg announces that the company’s headquarters will be renamed Meta, as the Greek word for “beyond”, but also as a metaverse, the virtual world that he believes represents the future of the internet.
– 2022 –
FEBRUARY: on Thursday 3 Meta loses a quarter of its value on the stock market, with 200,000 million dollars disappearing, after announcing a fall in profits, something never seen on Wall Street.
That same month, he admits for the first time to have lost daily active users, one million, affected by competition from social networks that attract the youngest, such as Tik Tok and Snapchat. In any case, it retains 1.96 billion users, that is, about a quarter of the world’s population.
