The Beginning of Facebook
Way back in early 2004 Mark Zuckerberg gave birth to Facebook, then at thefacebook.com. At that time Mark Zuckerberg was a sophomore at Harvard University. The name for Facebook came from the publications that some colleges pass out to students at the beginning of the year to help students get to know each other better, called a Facebook.
In the beginning there was Harvard and only Harvard. Facebook was created as a way for Mark Zuckerberg and other Harvard students to keep in touch over the Internet and get to know each other better. Facebook became so popular, in just a matter of months, that is was soon opened to other colleges. By the end of the following year it was also open to high schools. The year after that it was opened to the general Internet public, as long as you were 13 and older.
Facebook's Investors
Facebook has investors including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Accel Partners, and Greylock Partners. In 2007 Microsoft jumped in and invested $246 million for a 1.6% share in Facebook. The next month Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing made a large investment too. Yahoo! and Google both offered to buy Facebook, but Mark Zuckerberg says that Facebook's not for sale.
How Facebook Makes Money
Facebook mainly makes their money from advertising revenue. That's why you'll see banner ads on Facebook. That's how they can manage to create such a great service to you for free.
Facebook's Many Features
Over time Facebook has added many new features to their website. You'll now find a news feed, more privacy features, Facebook notes, the ability to add images to your blog and comments, importing other blogs into Facebook, instant messaging, and much more. Also, new apps are born on Facebook every day.