‘Facebook’, says the excitable author of this hero-gram, ‘may be the fastest-growing company of any type in history.’
‘Facebook’, says the excitable author of this hero-gram, ‘may be the fastest-growing company of any type in history.’
‘Thefacebook.com’ went live on 4 February 2004, as an on-line directory for students at Harvard, inviting them to upload a picture of themselves and some basic info, such as their ‘relationship status’, favourite books, music, movies and a quotation. Once they had set up their own profiles, they could ask others to be their ‘friend’ and direct a jokey ‘poke’ (never defined) at them. Thefacebook offered no content whatsoever of its own, being merely a platform for content uploaded by its users.
By the end of the first week, more than half of all Harvard undergraduates had signed up; by the end of the month, three-quarters. Within a few weeks, it had expanded to Columbia, Stanford and Yale, and then moved on to other Ivy League universities.
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