This article is about the social networking service. For the type of directory, see face book.

Facebook, Inc.

Facebook login/signup screen

Type Public

Traded as NASDAQ: FB

Founded 4 February 2004

Headquarters Menlo Park, California, US

Area served United States (2004–05)

Worldwide (2005–present)

Founder(s)Mark Zuckerberg Eduardo Saverin Andrew McCollum Dustin Moskovitz Chris Hughes

Key people Mark Zuckerberg

(Chairman and CEO)

Sheryl Sandberg

(COO)

Industry Internet

Revenue  US$7.87 billion (2013)[1]

Operating

income

 US$2.80 billion (2013)[1]

Net income  US$1.50 billion (2013)[1]

Total assets  US$17.89 billion (2013)[1]

Total equity  US$15.47 billion (2013)[1]

Employees 9,199 (December 2014)[2]

Subsidiaries Instagram

WhatsApp

Oculus VR

PrivateCore

Website www.facebook.com Tor :

facebookcorewwwi.onion[3]

Written in C++, PHP (as HHVM)[4] and D language [5]

Alexa rank  2 (September 2014)[6]

Type of site Social networking service

Registration Required

Users 890 million daily active users on average for

December 2014[2]

Available in Multilingual (70)

Current status Active

Part of a series on

Facebook

History

Timeline

Acquisitions

Criticism

Features

V

T

E

Facebook (formerly [thefacebook]) is an online social networking service headquartered in Menlo

Park, California. Its website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg with his college

roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin

Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.[7] The founders had initially limited the website's membership to

Harvard students, but later expanded it to colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford

University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities and later to high-

school students. Facebook now allows anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old to become a

registered user of the website.[8] Its name comes from a colloquialism for the directory given to it by

American universities students.[9]

After registering to use the site, users can create a user profile, add other users as "friends",

exchange messages, post status updates and photos, share videos and receive notifications when

others update their profiles. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by

workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as

"People From Work" or "Close Friends". Facebook had over 1.3 billion active users as of June 2014.[2] Due to the large volume of data collected about users, the service's privacy policies have faced

scrutiny, among other criticisms. Facebook, Inc. held its initial public offering in February 2012 and

began selling stock to the public three months later, reaching a peak market capitalization of $104

billion.

Contents  [hide] 

1 Historyo 1.1 2003–2005: Thefacebook, Thiel investment and Name changeo 1.2 2006–2011: Public access, Microsoft alliance and Rapid growtho 1.3 2012–2013: IPO, Lawsuits and One-billionth usero 1.4 2013–present: Site developments, A4AI and 10th anniversary

2 Corporate affairso 2.1 Managemento 2.2 Revenueo 2.3 Stock history

o 2.4 Mergers and acquisitionso 2.5 Officeso 2.6 Open source contributions

3 Websiteo 3.1 Historyo 3.2 User profile/personal timelineo 3.3 Comparison with Myspaceo 3.4 News Feedo 3.5 Noteso 3.6 Chato 3.7 Giftso 3.8 Marketplaceo 3.9 Messagingo 3.10 Voice callso 3.11 Video callingo 3.12 Video viewingo 3.13 Followingo 3.14 Privacy

3.14.1 FTC settlement 3.14.2 Tor hidden service

o 3.15 Technical aspectso 3.16 Like button

3.16.1 Lawsuito 3.17 Facebook Bug Bounty Program

4 Reception 5 Criticisms and controversies

o 5.1 Electricity usageo 5.2 Blockage by governmento 5.3 Event overcrowding in Germanyo 5.4 British office worker blockso 5.5 Use by underage childreno 5.6 Accounts hacked in Bangalore, Indiao 5.7 Unauthorized wall posting bugo 5.8 Users quittingo 5.9 iPhone 'Paper' appo 5.10 User influence experimentso 5.11 Real-name policy controversy

6 Impacto 6.1 Media impacto 6.2 Social impacto 6.3 Health impact

6.3.1 Facebook envy 6.3.2 Unfriending psychological impact

o 6.4 Political impact 7 Most popular pages 8 In popular culture 9 Competitors 10 See also

11 Notes 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links