Friends Day: Facebook’s birthday is today – 12 years on, here’s three ways the social network has changed
Happy Friends Day friend!
You might have noticed something different on you Facebook feed today – a personal video of your nearest and dearest (on Facebook, at least), all because the social network is turning 12.
Yep, it's hard to believe it's entering its teenage years, and that just 12 short years ago, it didn't even exist. Seriously, what were we doing with our time?
Here's how the social network, now the background to our lives, changed between then and now.
1. THE Facebook
Facebook wasn't even a thing in 2004. It was actually The Facebook and had the URL thefacebook.com.
Here's what it looked like.
It wasn't until a year later, in 2005, that it bought up the facebook.com URL for $200,000 and dropped "the".
Of course, it was all laid out for desktop – remember, the smartphone didn't exist back in 2004. (Seriously, what were we doing with our time?)
2. Dorm room dork
Famously, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg started it all in his college dorm room at Harvard.
By 2006, the company had expanded out of the one room.
And now, Facebook has more than 12,000 staff in more than 20 countries. Here's what it's California HQ looks like.
3. Zero to billions
Back in 2014, Facebook was worth zero, as was Zuckerberg. Fast forward 12 years and the company has had a pretty much upward trajectory – apart from a tough year post IPO in 2012/13 when its value almost halved – and is now a $322bn business.
