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Facebook is a social media and networking website, and it is the flagship service provided to the public by the company Facebook Inc. The name ‘face book’ comes from the directories that are often given to the American university students. It is also called as ‘FB’ informally. While the site was initially made for only the students of Ivy league universities and higher education institutions in Boston, it slowly took roots in other countries.
Currently, Facebook has over 2.50 billion active users in the month, as per December 2019 statistics shared by the company. Facebook can be accessed on various devices and requires internet connectivity. One has to register on Facebook and make their profile using Facebook Sign In. This will create a Facebook account of the person. Once registered, ‘Facebook Login’ lets the user access it daily. People can send each other ‘friends requests’, and share interests, images and ideas on the site. People can also send each other personal messages through Facebook Messenger, which also has its own app.
A typical FB profile has a News Feed, which shows everything that the user’s friends have been sharing on the site. It also shows posts that are uploaded by Pages that are formed by various brands, film and TV production houses, and other companies. People can share their pictures on their Facebook accounts and also tag their friends, who can be seen in the picture. A user can ‘Like, Comment and Share’ the image or the post.
Facebook has also set up a platform for businesses and local sellers to post their products on Facebook and sell it to people. This feature is named ‘Facebook Marketplace’, and it was established in the year 2016. May 2020 also saw the introduction of Facebook shop, where people can also sell products, similar to other online-shopping sites like Amazon and Flipkart. Other features include Events, Groups, Fundraises and also Messenger Kids.
Facebook Events and Fundraises help one attract an audience or participants for various events and fundraises happening in the city. Messenger Kids allows children to contact with their friends with proper parental control. Facebook Groups can be made by users to share content with like-minded people and restrict their content to one particular topic. For example, Harry Potter fans can make one group and discuss about the series on it.
Privacy is one of the most important parts of Facebook since people post a lot of personal and sensitive information on the site. Facebook enables users to select those who will be able to access their posts. Users can also block people from their profile. It has also taken positive steps towards controlling fake news, stories and hoaxes that can be shared through its portal, making sure no malicious content is spread.
When was Facebook created?
Facebook was established on February 4, 2004. It has been successfully running on the World Wide Web for the last 16 years.
Who are the founders of Facebook?
The site was founded by Mark Zukerberg along with Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. They were fellow students and roommates at Harvard College when they founded the social media site.
Who owns Facebook?
In the year 2009, Eduardo Saverin and Zukerberg saw a rift in agreement and Saverin moved away from the matters concerning Facebook, just keeping the title as the co-founder. Andrew McCollum also moved away while Dustin left Facebook to form a new company Asana, which is a mobile application. Chris Hughes, who left the company in 2007, came forward in 2019, raising concerns that Mark Zuckerberg has too much control on the company. Currently, Mark Zuckerberg is the CEO of Facebook and the only one left from the founders in the company.
Controversies
There have been large numbers of controversies that Facebook was involved in. On multiple occasions, Facebook has been attacked about user privacy, and how it keeps changing its privacy settings and policies. One of the biggest scandals that Facebook was involved in was the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Over 87 million Facebook users’ information was sold to Cambridge Analytica, a political data analysis firm by Global Science Research, which is a customer of Facebook. While it tried to downplay the problem at first, it came out with a statement apologizing for the scandal and also shared that they would limit the data that an app can access if a person signs up using Facebook.
Facebook has also recorded breaches in security and user information in the years 2018, twice in 2019, and again in 2020. 2016 also saw a political controversy, under which it was claimed that more than $100,000 worth of ads were sold to a company that had links to the Russian intelligence community before the 2016 United States presidential election. In 2018, Facebook also came out with concerns that many Pages, Groups and accounts were created to stir political debate, which included content about the US, Middle East, Russia and UK.
Mergers and acquisitions (Popular businesses acquired by Facebook)
In the year 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for approximately$1 billion in cash and stock.
February 2014 saw Facebook buying the mobile messaging company Whatsapp for $19 billion in cash and stock.
Facebook bought Oculus VR for $2.3 billion in stock and cash, releasing its first consumer virtual reality headset.
A $5.7 billion deal was made with Reliance Industries in April 2020 to purchase approximately 10 percent of Jio Platforms, Reliance's digital media and services entity.
May 2020 saw the acquisition of GIPHY for $400 million. People are now able to use GIFs from GIPHY on their Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp chats.
Revenue
The First Quarter 2020 Revenue (up till March 31), as per a press release, is $17,737 (In millions, except percentages and per share amounts).
Facebook has offices all around the world
Facebook has over 60 offices spread across the world. Its main office is situated in Menlo Park, California. In India, there are five offices. They are situated in New Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.