Here is an article talking about Facebook, its features, the people who use it, and the number of people who have downloaded the application

1. Facebook, American company
offeringonline social networkingservices.Facebookwasfoundedin2004 byMark Zuckerberg,Eduardo
Saveri,DustinMoskovitz,andChrisHughes,all of whomwere studentsatHarvardUniversity.Facebook
became the largestsocial networkinthe world,withmore thanone billionusersasof 2012, andabout
half that numberwere usingFacebookeveryday.The company’sheadquartersare inMenloPark,
California.AccesstoFacebookisfree of charge,andthe companyearnsmost of itsmoneyfrom
advertisementsonthe Website.Newuserscancreate profiles,uploadphotos,joinapreexistinggroup,
and start newgroups.The site hasmany components,includingTimeline,aspace oneach user’sprofile
page where userscan posttheircontent andfriendscanpost messages;Status,whichenablesusersto
alertfriendstotheircurrentlocationorsituation;andNewsFeed,whichinformsusersof changesto
theirfriends’profilesandstatus.Userscan chat witheach otherandsendeach otherprivate messages.
Users can signal theirapproval of contentonFacebookwiththe Like button,afeature thatalsoappears
on manyotherWeb sites.
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The attractivenessof FacebookstemsinpartfromcofounderZuckerberg’sinsistence fromthe very
beginningthatmembersbe transparentaboutwhotheyare;usersare forbiddenfromadoptingfalse
identities.The company’smanagementarguedthattransparencyis necessaryforformingpersonal
relationships,sharingideasandinformation,andbuildingupsocietyasa whole.Italsonotedthatthe
bottom-up,peer-to-peerconnectivityamongFacebookusersmakesiteasierforbusinessestoconnect
theirproductswith consumers.
The company hasa complicatedearlyhistory.ItbeganatHarvard Universityin2003 as Facemash,an
online serviceforstudentstojudge the attractivenessof theirfellowstudents.Because the primary
developer,Zuckerberg,violateduniversity policyinacquiringresourcesforthe service,itwasshutdown
aftertwo days.Despite itsmayflylike existence,450people (whovoted22,000 times) flockedto
Facemash.That successpromptedZuckerbergtoregisterthe URLhttp://www.thefacebook.comin
January2004. He thencreateda newsocial networkatthat addresswithfellowstudentsSaverin,
Moskovitz,andHughes.
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The social networkTheFacebook.comlaunchedinFebruary2004.Harvard studentswhosignedupfor
the service couldpostphotographsof themselvesandpersonalinformationabouttheirlives,suchas
theirclassschedulesandclubstheybelongedto.Itspopularityincreased,andsoonstudentsfromother
prestigiousschools,suchasYale and Stanforduniversities,wereallowedtojoin.ByJune 2004 more than

2. 250,000 studentsfrom34 schoolshad signedup,andthat same yearmajor corporationssuchas the
credit-cardcompanyMasterCardstartedpayingfor exposure onthe site.
In September2004 TheFacebookaddedthe Wall toa member’sonline profile.Thiswidelyusedfeature
leta user’sfriendspostinformationontheirWall andbecame a keyelementinthe social aspectof the
network.Bythe endof 2004, TheFacebookhadreachedone millionactiveusers.However,the company
still trailedthe then-leadingonline social network,Myspace,whichboastedfive millionmembers.
The year 2005 provedtobe pivotal forthe company.Itbecame simplyFacebook andintroducedthe
ideaof “tagging” people inphotosthatwere postedtothe site.Withtags,people identifiedthemselves
and othersinimagesthatcouldbe seenbyotherFacebookfriends.Facebookalsoallowedusersto
uploadan unlimitednumberof photos.In2005 high-school studentsandstudentsatuniversities
outside the UnitedStateswere allowedtojointhe service.Byyear’sendithadsix millionmonthlyactive
users.
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In 2006 Facebookopeneditsmembershipbeyondstudentstoanyone overthe age of 13. As Zuckerberg
had predicted,advertiserswere able tocreate new andeffective customerrelationships.Forexample,
that year,householdproductmanufacturerProcter&Gamble attracted 14,000 people toapromotional
effortby“expressingaffinity”withateeth-whiteningproduct.Thiskindof directconsumerengagement
on sucha large scale had notbeenpossible before Facebook,andmore companiesbeganusingthe
social networkformarketingandadvertising.
PrivacyremainsanongoingproblemforFacebook.Itfirstbecame aseriousissue forthe companyin
2006, whenitintroducedNewsFeed,whichconsistedof everychange thata user’sfriends hadmade to
theirpages.Afteranoutcry fromusers,Facebookswiftlyimplementedprivacycontrolsinwhichusers
couldcontrol what contentappearedinNewsFeed.In2007 Facebooklaunchedashort-livedservice
calledBeaconthatletmembers’friendsseewhatproductstheyhadpurchasedfromparticipating
companies.Itfailedbecausemembersfeltthatitencroachedontheirprivacy.Indeed,asurveyof
consumersin2010 putFacebookinthe bottom 5 percentof companiesincustomersatisfactionlargely
because of privacyconcerns,andthe companycontinuestobe criticizedforthe complexityof itsuser
privacycontrolsand forthe frequentchangesitmakestothem.
In 2008 FacebooksurpassedMyspace asthe most-visitedsocial mediaWebsite.Withthe introduction
of Live Feed,the companyalsotooka competitive swingatthe growingpopularityof Twitter,asocial
networkthatruns a live feedof newsservice-likepostsfrommemberswhomauserfollows.Similarto
Twitter’songoingstreamof userposts,Live Feedpushedpostsfromfriendsautomaticallytoa
member’shomepage.(LiveFeedhassince beenincorporatedintoNewsFeed.)

3. Facebookhasbecome a powerful tool forpolitical movements,beginningwiththe U.S.presidential
electionof 2008, whenmore than 1,000 Facebookgroupswere formedinsupportof eitherDemocratic
candidate Barack Obamaor Republicancandidate JohnMcCain.InColombiathe service wasusedto
rallyhundredsof thousandsinprotestsagainstthe antigovernmentFARCguerrillarebellion.InEgypt,
activistsprotestingthe governmentof Pres.Hosni Mubarakduringthe uprisingof 2011 oftenorganized
themselvesbyforminggroupsonFacebook.
Facebookencouragesthird-partysoftware developerstouse the service.In2006 itreleasedits
applicationprogramminginterface (API) sothatprogrammerscouldwrite softwarethatFacebook
memberscoulduse directlythroughthe service.By2009 developersgeneratedabout$500 millionin
revenue forthemselvesthroughFacebook.The companyalsoearns revenuesfromdevelopersthrough
paymentsforvirtual ordigital productssoldthroughthird-partyapplications.By2011 paymentsfrom
one such company,ZyngaInc.,an online game developer,accountedfor12 percentof the company’s
revenues.
In February 2012 Facebookfiledtobecome apubliccompany.Itsinitial publicoffering(IPO)inMay
raised$16 billion,givingitamarketvalue of $102.4 billion.Bycontrast,the largestIPOof an Internet
companyto date was that of the search-engine companyGoogleInc.,whichhadraised$1.9 billionwhen
it wentpublicin2004. By the endof the firstday of the stock’strading,Zuckerberg’sholdingswere
estimatedatmore than$19 billion. Best Laser BeamTargetingSystem