Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg as a social media platform for Harvard University students. It quickly expanded to other colleges and universities. By 2005, Facebook had over 1 million users across various educational institutions. Since then, Facebook has grown tremendously to become one of the largest social media platforms with over 1.3 billion active users globally as of 2014. Facebook has adapted over the years by adding new features like hashtags and videos to remain competitive against other social media like Twitter and YouTube. It also acquired WhatsApp for $21.8 billion to gain more users. Going forward, Facebook will need to continue evolving and adapting to emerging trends to stay relevant in the dynamic social media industry.

1. Summary of the drive of Facebook
through the years
Facebookisone of the mostpopularsocial mediaplatformrecently.Itisa platformwhere
individualsandbodies(organisations) canregisterandpostcomment,picturesandvideos.Italso
allowsaddingof fellowregisteredmembersof the site asfriendstomake upa formof connection.
Organisationcanalsocreate a page whichcan be "liked"registeredmembersasaudience of the
page.
FacebookstartedinFebruary2004 aftersellingoff itspredecessorsite "facemash"forasum of
$30,201.00. Mark Zuckerbergthe founderof Facebookstated"Itisclearthatthe technology needed
to create a centralizedWebsiteisreadilyavailable ...the benefitsare many"Thiswasafterhe was
chargedfor creatinga website usinginformationfromaHarvard universitywebsite whichhad
picturesof students.The website"facemash"wascreatedforpeople torate and vote peoples
attractivenessbypairingphotosof differentstudents.Aftermuchpublicityinthe school,Zuckerberg
realisedthe needforacentralisedwebsite foreasycommunicationbetweenstudentsof the Harvard
University.He createdthe Facebookwhichwasinitiallylocatedathttp://thefacebook.comandit
was to fostercommunicationforHarvardstudents.The firstdaysaw the website aregistrationof
about1,200 membersandina month,more thanhalf of the studentsof Harvard were registered.
Withadvice fromentrepreneurSeanParker,Facebookwasextendedtoothercollegesinthe Boston
area and thentothe Ivyleague schoolsandgraduallytomostcollegesinthe UnitedStatesand
Canada.
By the 2005 Facebookwasable to purchase the domainname facebook.comforasum of
$200,000.00 andstartedexpendingmembershiptoemployeesof Apple Inc.andMicrosoft,thento
more schoolsinEurope and Australia.Atthe endof 2005, Facebookwasofficiallyin2000 colleges
and 25,000 highschoolsinthe UnitedStates,Canada,Mexico,UnitedKingdom, Australia,New
Zealand,andIreland.
Overthe years,Facebookhasgrown intoa majoradvertisinggiantandas at December2014 had
more than 1.3 billionactiveusers.One interestingfactis how Facebookwhichstartedasa idea
gearedtowardsfosteringcommunicationbetweencollegecollegeshastransformedandbeen
shapedbybusiness.PresentlyFacebookhasimprovedsomuchas itcompeteswithothersocial
medialike twitterandYouTube toinclude hatchtags and videotomentionjustafew of itsfeatures
adaptedfromothersocial mediaplatforms.Asthe companystrivestoremainrelevantinthe
market,theymade a strategicpurchase of WhatsAppfor $21.8 billionasefforttogainmore
customers.Facebookiseverchangingandstrivingtomeetupwiththe trendsof the marketto retain
and gainmore active users.Ina marketthat isdrivingbytrends,anysocial mediawhichintendsto
stay aroundfor longneedtoeithercontrol andinventtrends orbuyintotrendsand continually
change to remaininfashion.Competingwithnumerouscategoriesof social mediaplatformswith
companieslike Instagram, twitter,LinkedInandYouTube,Facebookstill maintainahighaudience
and whichiskeywhenoperatinginthe advertisementindustry.

2. In the future we hope tosee Facebookadaptto more social mediaformatsthat mightbe trendingat
everypointintime andthiswill make themcontinuallyrelevantinthe industry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Facebook
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/facebooks-21-8-billion-acquisition-lost-138-million-last-
year/?_r=0
http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-evolution-2013-3