On Feb. 4, 2004, a Harvard student named Mark Zuckerberg, along with a few of his fellow classmates, had an idea to create a social network for Harvard students. Dubbed “TheFacebook,” the site was a place where students could communicate and share photos with their friends.Within a month, TheFacebook grew in popularity, prompting its founders to include students from other well-respected universities. It didn’t take long for it to become a full-fledged business that Zuckerberg decided to expand to most of the universities in the United States and Canada. It eventually opened the site to any user, rather than just college students, to expand its reach.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/02/facebook-six-years-later-from-a-dorm-room-to-a-household-name.htmlAlso see:Facebook hits 400 million users
As we noted earlier, Facebook launched six years ago Thursday. Capping a year of spectacular growth and celebrating the milestone, Facebook founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg published a special post on the site’s blog. In it he revealed the company this week has surged to 400 million users. It was only five months ago that Facebook had 300 million.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/02/facebook-hits-400-million-users.html