Web Solutions - Portal Development
Facebook: Community Website
Beginning of the Saga!
The success of Facebook shows carving a unique position in the online media is no childsplay! From a rather humble beginning, Facebook has witnessed a meteoric growth. There is nothing commendable about the launch of the site - launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, a 23 year old student of Harvard University, Facebook is a social networking site which restricted its membership to students of Harvard in the beginning. Later, many individual universities were added in rapid succession and students were allowed to select one or more participating networks, such as a high school, place of employment, or geographic region etc.
Today, keeping track of the member details of the site is a Herculean task. Estimations as of July 2007 reveal that Facebook has the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites with over 30 million members worldwide. It is also the seventh most visited site in the United States and received approximately $500,000 from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel in an angel round. Talking about the revenue, it is said that the site earns above $5 million in a week! This miraculous growth of Facebook indicates how success can be defined in the eWay.
Features
It is indeed the features that take a site to the top of the list. The exclusive features of Facebook include:
- Upload Photos - Facebook lets you upload as many photo albums as you want
- Publish Notes – Let your voice be heard by writing notes or importing your external blogs
- Latest news - When you log in, Facebook shows all the latest news and activity from your friends in your Home Page
- News Feed - Check out photos and notes your friends have added, and see what groups they've joined or created
- Privacy settings - Provides a control over the information each user has given in face book. Users have specific privacy settings for photos, notes, each part of member’s profile and more. Users can block individuals and can create a limited profile to hide certain parts of their profile from specific friends
Achievements
2005
Raises $12.7 million in venture capital from Accel Partners in August and expands to most small universities and Junior Colleges in the United States, Canada, and the UK. In December, universities in Australia and New Zealand were added to the Facebook network, bringing its size to more than 2,000 colleges and more than 25,000 high schools.
2006
In April, Peter Thiel, Greylock Partners, and Meritech Capital Partners invest an additional $25 million in the site. In May, Facebook's network extends into India, at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). On September 11, 2006, Facebook became open to all users of the Internet. On 10th May, Facebook announces a plan to add free, classified advertisements to its website, making it a competitor with other established online companies
2007
Launches an API that allows the development of applications to be used on the site – the Facebook Platform! In June, the partnership begun the previous year between iTunes and Facebook continued with the download service again offering free music samplers through the Apple Students group. In June 2007 it was ranked between top 10–20 web sites, and was the number one site for photos in the United States, far ahead of public sites such as Flickr, with over 8.5 million photos uploaded daily.
Current Status: - Active