Hello fellow reader or readers. When there comes the time to think about something blue and giant, there is a great chance that one would think of me, Facebook. I’m not your ordinary social network platform that is ever so neatly laid out by a grid to fit and respond to your digital screens. I have history, residence, education, friends, loved ones, hobbies, and even a religion. I have all of this spreading across the world. So take a look, a glance, a skim, through what the Internet says about me. Then you can understand me as the blue giant I am.
They say this is how I began.
Facebook is an online social networking service. Its name comes from a colloquialism for the directory given to students at some American universities. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook on February 4, 2004 with his roommates at Harvard University. 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 before it opened to high-school students, and eventually to anyone aged 13 and over. Facebook now allows anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old to become a registered user of the website. Users must register before using the site after which they may create a profile; add other users as friends, exchange messages, and receive automatic notifications when they update their profile. In September 2012, Facebook had over one billion users, of which
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approximately 9% were fake. In 2012, Facebook was adding over half a petabyte of data every 24 hours, amounting to about 180 petabytes per year. Zuckerberg wrote a program called Facemash on October 28, 2003 while attending Harvard as a sophomore. To accomplish this, Zuckerberg hacked into protected areas of Harvard’s computer network and copied private dormitory ID images. Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged by the administration with security breach, violating copyrights, individual privacy. Ultimately, the charges were dropped. In the next semester, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website in January 2004. He said he was inspired by an editorial about the Facemash event in The Harvard Crimson. On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched “TheFacebook”, which was originally located at theFacebook.com.
Historical data: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
Six days after the site launched, three Harvard seniors (Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra) accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing he would help them build the network, HarvardConnection. com. They later filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, subsequently settling in 2008 for 1.2 million shares (worth $300 million at Facebook’s IPO). In March 2004, Facebook expanded to the students in universities of Columbia, Stanford, and Yale. It later opened to all students in Ivy League colleges, Boston University, New York University, MIT, and gradually most universities in Canada and the United States. Facebook Inc. began selling stock to the public and trading on the NASDAQ on May 18, 2012. Based on its 2012 income of US$5 billion, Facebook joined the Fortune 500 list for the first time on the list published in May 2013, being placed at position 462. In
March 2012, Facebook announced App Center, a store selling applications that operate via the site. In 2012, Facebook was valued at $104 billion, and by January 2014 its market capitalization had risen to over $134 billion. At the end of January 2014, 1.23 billion users were active on the website every month, while on December 31, 2013, 945 million of this total were identified by the company as mobile users. The company celebrated its tenth anniversary in the week of February 3, 2014. In each of the first three months of 2014, over one billion logged into their Facebook account on a mobile device. On January 2014, during the week previous to the company’s tenth anniversary, COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, clarified by saying: “He [Mark] always said Facebook was started not just to be a company, but to fulfill a vision of connecting the world”.
I was taught how to function the way I do by the tips and tricks from the minds of fellow intelligent folks. I was not born as a blue giant from the beginning. I used to be a tiny algorithm inside a single hard-drive of a computer and from there on I was taught how to play around with heaps of data. I was fed more lessons and codes on how to become the blue giant I am today.
I was fed to grow into something huge.
I began my studies within the computers of these fellow founders that created me. They raised me in the rooms of their school dormitories, which I had to eventually move out of because well, I became a giant. Mark Zuckerberg FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO. Mark Zuckerberg is the CEO of Facebook, which he founded in 2004. He leads the design of Facebook’s service and development of its core technology and infrastructure. Dustin Moskovitz CO-FOUNDER Dustin Moskovitz is a co-founder of Facebook and was a key leader within the technical staff. He most recently worked on the company’s internal tools strategy and development.
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Chris Hughes CO-FOUNDER Chris Hughes is a co-founder of Facebook. Chris first worked as the Facebook spokesperson from with Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz. Eduardo Saverin CO-FOUNDER Eduardo Saverin is a co-founder of Facebook. Eduardo managed the business development and sales aspects during Facebook’s early years. Andrew McCollum CO-FOUNDER Andrew McCollum was the core graphic artist of Facebook during its early years.
Names and data: http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/
My founders got me connected with these individuals that taught me how to take care of my giant self.
Sheryl Sandberg CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer at Facebook, overseeing the firm’s business operations. Sheryl received a BA summa cum laude from Harvard University and an MBA with highest distinction from Harvard Business School. David Ebersman CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER David is Chief Financial Officer of Facebook, where he leads the finance, facilities and information technology teams. He a bachelor’s in economics and international relations from Brown University. Mike Schroepfer CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, VICE PRESIDENT OF ENGINEERING Mike is responsible for the organization’s culture of
speed, creativity and exploration to build products, services and infrastructure that support the more than 1 billion people worldwide who use Facebook. Mike holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University. Chris Cox CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER Chris as the CPO leads Product Management, Design, and Marketing functions for Facebook at a global sclae. He is responsible for the core products and features that shape the social experience for the over 1.2 billion people who use Facebook every month. He holds a bachelor’s degree in symbolic systems with a concentration in artificial intelligence from Stanford University.
There are people around the world that work for a living to keep me alive. They protect me from evil diseases, viruses, and strangers that are out there to mess around with my mind. Who knows? Without them I could have become a giant blue dating site. They also dress me up nicely so I appear real nice amongst the vast networking websites out there.
They’re more like family than employees.
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Sales and Business Development We’re obsessed with social media and business strategy, so we spend our time creating strategic partnerships and working with some of the most exciting companies and brands. Product Management From News Feed to Mobile Applications and all in between, we drive the conceptual and technical development of product initiatives from the very beginning to the final end. People and Recruiting As ‘one team’, People@ focuses on three major areas of interest: hire the very best people, foster continuous personal growth and enrich the overall user experience. Online Operations We test our agility every day, making sure users and advertisers have the best experience on Facebook for sales, inquiries, and daily operations. We seek to enhance site efficiency and provide users top-rate customer experiences.
IT and Security We’re relentless in removing friction in users jobs and helping them drive impact at Facebook. Infrastructure By thinking big and moving fast, we’re laying the actual ground work for people around the world to share and connect. Operating at such scale means we have to think differently about managing all of the traffic and data coming to the site. Software Engineering Our development cycle is extremely fast, and we’ve built tools to keep it that way. It’s common to write code and have it running live site a few days later. Design and User Experience We work with Product and Engineering to design and implement the features you see. We conduct research to gain user insights, and use those final results to make products as intuitive, simple and elegant as possible.
Data and Analytics We leverage data to understand Facebook’s prodMarketing ucts and growth, identify opportunities for impact, We are obsessed with social media and use our and execute ideas with the products, designs, and knowledge to create great and innovative market- engineering teams. ing strategies. Communications and Public Policy Legal, Finance, Facilities, and Admin Facebook is all about connecting and sharing, and We know how to create fun workspaces that truly that’s what we do with policy makers, journalists, reflect the culture, pay the bills, handle all the fine bloggers, and partners around the world. We presprint, and keep people on schedule. ent stories from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
Data: https://www.facebook.com/careers/
A giant like me needs a lot of turf. These locations are where the Facebook offices stand. Yes it is quite luxurious to have so many homes, but it’s what happens when people around the world expect you to show up on their screens on-demand. The people who work to sustain me are all here as well. I move around here, and there, and around, and about really fast. However when the web traffic is high, it isn’t so easy to move my giant body so quickly. I am not fat, just heavy.
Giants need space. Mine is worldwide.
Asia & South Pacific
Europe & Midde East
North America
Auckland, New Zealand Jakarta, Indonesia New Delhi, India Tokyo, Japan Beijing, China Malaysia Seoul, South Korea Hong Kong Melbourne, Australia Singapore Hyderabad, India Mumbai, India Sydney, Australia
Amsterdam, Netherlands Dublin, Ireland Madrid, Spain Tel Aviv, Israel Berlin, Germany Hamburg, Germany Milan, Italy Warsaw, Poland Brussels, Belgium London, UK Paris, France Dubai, UAE Luleå, Sweden Stockholm, Sweden
Altoona, IA Boston, MA Forest City, NC New York, NY Ashburn, VA Chicago, IL Los Angees, CA Prineville, OR Atlanta, GA Dalas, TX Menlo Park, CA Austin, TX Detroit, MI Miami, Florida Toronto, Canada Vancouver, Canada Latin America
Don’t get me started on how many languages I had to learn. Eighty three, if not more.
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Bogotá, Colombia Buenos Aires, Argentina Mexico City, Mexico São Paulo, Brazil
Data: https://www.facebook.com/careers/. Infographic by Paul Butler.
I don’t mean to brag, but I’m probably one of the most popular blue giants out there. I have pretty much made friends with a large chunk of the world.
I have quite a reputation.
Facebook says that it now has 1.11 billion people using the site each month, slightly more than the 1.06 billion reported three months earlier. It represents a 23 percent growth from a year earlier. Facebook also says it had 665 million active users each day on average, and 751 million people using Facebook on mobile devices each month. In addition, Facebook says it had 751 million monthly active mobile users in the first quarter, which is up 10 percent from 680 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. Data: https://news.yahoo.com/number-ac tive-users-facebook-over-230449748.html
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When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. I guess I can say that I live by that rule. I don’t splurge all of my money in one-go, but shopping is a frequent hobby of mine. No, I don’t buy an accessive amount of clothes. I buy companies, that’s all.
I guess I’ve had a company shopping spree.
Take a look at the things I’ve bought thus far. It is quite a collection.
2005, Facebook.com 2007, Parakey 2008, ConnectU 2009, FriendFeed 2010, Octazen 2010, Divvyshot 2010, Friendster 2010, ShareGrove 2010, Nextstop 2010, Chai Labs 2010, Hot Potato 2010, Drop.io 2010, FB.com 2011, Rel8tion 2010, Beluga 2011, Snaptu 2011, RecRec 2011, DayTum 2011, Sofa 2011, MailRank 2011, Push Pop Press 2011, Friend.ly 2011, Strobe 2011, Gowalla
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2012, Instagram 2012, Tagtile 2012, Glancee 2012, Lightbox.com 2012, Karma 2012, Face.com 2012, Spool 2012, Acrylic Software 2012, Threadsy 2013, Atlas 2013, osmeta 2013, Hot Studio 2013, Spaceport 2013, Parse 2013, Monoidics 2013, Jibbigo 2013, Onavo 2013, SportStream 2014, Little Eye Labs 2014, Branch 2014, WhatsApp 2014, Oculus VR 2014, ProtoGeo Oy Ok, what’s next?
Data: http://facebook.about.com/od/Advanced/tp/Facebook-Mergers-And-Acquisitions.htm
Can’t get enough of ‘em logos.
I live and breathe by these laws. With faith and loyalty I abide by these decrees which have been embedded into my system.
The Data Use Policy is my religion.
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Your trust is important to us, which is why we don’t share information we receive about you with others unless we have: received your permission
YOU CAN DEACTIVATE YOUR ACCOUNT AT: HTTPS:// WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SETTINGS?TAB=SECURITY Information others share about you We receive information about you from your friends and others, such as when they upload your How we use the information we receive contact information, post a photo of you, tag you We use the information we receive about you in connecin a photo or status update, or at a location, or add tion with the services and features we provide to you and you to a group. other users like your friends, our partners, the advertisers When people use Facebook, they may store that purchase ads on the site, and the developers that build and share information about you and others that the games, applications, and websites you use. For examthey have, such as when they upload and manage ple, in addition to helping people see and find things that their invites and contacts. you do and share, we may use the information we receive We receive data from or about the computer, about you: as part of our efforts to keep Facebook products, mobile phone, or other devices you use to install services and integrations safe and secure; to protect FaceFacebook apps or to access Facebook, including book’s or others’ rights or property; to provide you with locawhen multiple users log in from the same device. tion features and services, like telling you and your friends This may include network and communication inwhen something is going on nearby; to measure or underformation, such as your IP address or mobile phone stand the effectiveness of ads you and others see, including number, and other information about things like to deliver relevant ads to you; to make suggestions to you your internet service, operating system, location, and other users on Facebook, such as: suggesting that your the type (including identifiers) of the device or friend use our contact importer because you found friends browser you use, or the pages you visit. For examusing it, suggesting that another user add you as a friend ple, we may get your GPS or other location inforbecause the user imported the same email address as you Public information mation so we can tell you if any of your friends are did, or suggesting that your friend tag you in a picture they When we use the phrase nearby, or we could request device information to have uploaded with you in it; and for internal operations, “public information” (which we improve how our apps work on your device. including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research sometimes refer to as “Everyone We receive data whenever you visit a game, apand service improvement. information”), we mean the inforplication, or website that uses Facebook Platform mation you choose to make pubor visit a site with a Facebook feature (such as a solic, as well as information that is cial plugin), sometimes through cookies. This may always publicly available. include the date and time you visit the site; the web address, or URL.
CAN DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT AT: HTTPS://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/HELP/CONTACT.PHP?SHOW_FORM=DELETE_A 14
Data Use Policy: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/
WE MAY GET YOUR GPS OR OTHER LOCATION INFORMATION SO WE CAN TELL YOU IF ANY OF YOUR FRIENDS ARE NEARBY WE ONLY PROVIDE DATA TO OUR ADVERTISING PARTNERS & CUSTOMERS AFTER REMOVING PERSONAL INFORMATION.
ACCOUNT
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Deletion When you delete your account, it is permanently deleted from Facebook. It typically takes about one month to delete an account, but some information may remain in backup copies and logs for up to 90 days. You should only delete your account if you are sure you never want to reactivate it. Certain information is needed to proPH.FACEBOOK.COM/[USER ID OR USERNAME]?METADATA=1 vide you with services, so we only delete this information after you delete your account. Some of the things you do on Facebook aren’t stored in your account, like Your information posting to a group or sending someone a Your information is the information that’s message (where your friend may still have required when you sign up for the site, and a message you sent, even after you delete Deactivate the information you choose to share. your account). That information remains Deactivating your account Registration information: When you after you delete your account. puts your account on hold. Othsign up for Facebook, you are required to Usernames and User IDs er users will no longer see your provide information such as your name, Usernames and User IDs are the same timeline, but we do not delete email address, birthday, and gender. In thing – a way to identify you on Facebook. any of your information. Deacsome cases, you may be able to register A User ID is a string of numbers and a tivating an account is the same using other information, like your teleusername generally is some variation of as you telling us not to delete any phone number your name. With your username, you get information because you might Information you choose to share: Your a custom link (a Facebook URL, such as want to reactivate your account information also includes the information www.Facebook.com/username) to your at some point in the future. You you choose to share on Facebook, such timeline that you can give out to people or can deactivate your account at: as when you post a status update, upload post on external websites. https://www.Facebook.com/ a photo, or comment on a friend’s story. It If someone has your Username or settings?tab=security Your also includes the information you choose User ID, they can use it to access informafriends will still see you listed in to share when you communicate with us, tion about you through the Facebook.com their list of friends while your acsuch as when you contact us using an website. For example, if someone has your count is deactivated. email address, or when you take an action, Username, they can type Facebook.com/ such as when you add a friend, like a Page Username into their browser and see your or a website, add a place to your story, use public information as well as anything else our contact importers, or indicate you are you’ve let them see. Similarly, someone in a relationship. with your Username or User ID can access information about you through our APIs, such as our Graph API. Tvhey can access your public information, along with your age range, language and country.