2003–2006: Thefacebook, Thiel investment, and name change

Original layout and name of Thefacebook in 2004, showing Al Pacino's face superimposed with
binary numbers as Facebook's original logo, designed by co-founder Andrew McCollum[22]
Zuckerberg built a website called "Facemash" in 2003 while attending Harvard University. The site
was comparable to Hot or Not and used "photos compiled from the online face books of nine
Houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the "hotter" person".
[23] Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours.[24] The site was
sent to several campus group listservs, but was shut down a few days later by Harvard
administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged with breaching security, violating
copyrights and violating individual privacy. Ultimately, the charges were dropped.[23] Zuckerberg
expanded on this project that semester by creating a social study tool. He uploaded art images, each
accompanied by a comments section, to a website he shared with his classmates.[25]

A "face book" is a student directory featuring photos and personal information.[24] In 2003,
Harvard had only a paper version[26] along with private online directories.[23][27] Zuckerberg told
The Harvard Crimson, "Everyone's been talking a lot about a universal face book within Harvard. ...
I think it's kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it. I can
do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week."[27] In January 2004, Zuckerberg coded a new
website, known as "TheFacebook", inspired by a Crimson editorial about Facemash, stating, "It is
clear that the technology needed to create a centralized Website is readily available ... the benefits
are many." Zuckerberg met with Harvard student Eduardo Saverin, and each of them agreed to
invest $1,000 ($1,435 in 2021 dollars[28]) in the site.[29] On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg
launched "TheFacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com.[30]

Mark Zuckerberg, co-creator of Facebook, in his Harvard dorm room, 2005

Six days after the site launched, Harvard seniors Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and
Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing that he would
help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com. They claimed that he was instead
using their ideas to build a competing product.[31] The three complained to the Crimson and the
newspaper began an investigation. They later sued Zuckerberg, settling in 2008[32] for 1.2 million
shares (worth $300 million ($354 million in 2021 dollars[28]) at Facebook's IPO).[33]

Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College. Within a month, more than half
the undergraduates had registered.[34] Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes
joined Zuckerberg to help manage the growth of the website.[35] In March 2004, Facebook
expanded to Columbia, Stanford and Yale.[36] It then became available to all Ivy League colleges,
Boston University, NYU, MIT, and successively most universities in the United States and Canada.
[37][38]

In mid-2004, Napster co-founder and entrepreneur Sean Parker—an informal advisor to Zuckerberg
—became company president.[39] In June 2004, the company moved to Palo Alto, California.[40]
It received its first investment later that month from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.[41] In 2005, the
company dropped "the" from its name after purchasing the domain name Facebook.com for
US$200,000 ($277,492 in 2021 dollars[28]).[42] The domain had belonged to AboutFace
Corporation.

In May 2005, Accel Partners invested $12.7 million ($17.6 million in 2021 dollars[28]) in
Facebook, and Jim Breyer[43] added $1 million ($1.39 million in 2021 dollars[28]) of his own
money. A high-school version of the site launched in September 2005.[44] Eligibility expanded to
include employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft.[45]
2006–2012: Public access, Microsoft alliance, and rapid growth
In May 2006, Facebook hired its first intern, Julie Zhuo.[46] After a month, Zhuo was hired as a
full-time engineer.[46] On September 26, 2006, Facebook opened to everyone at least 13 years old
with a valid email address.[47][48][49] By late 2007, Facebook had 100,000 pages on which
companies promoted themselves.[50] Organization pages began rolling out in May 2009.[51] On
October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240
million ($314 million in 2021 dollars[28]), giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15
billion ($19.6 billion in 2021 dollars[28]). Microsoft's purchase included rights to place
international advertisements.[52][53]

In May 2007, at the first f8 developers conference, Facebook announced the launch of the Facebook
Developer Platform, providing a framework for software developers to create applications that
interact with core Facebook features. By the second annual f8 developers conference on July 23,
2008, the number of applications on the platform had grown to 33,000, and the number of registered
developers had exceeded 400,000.[54]

The website won awards such as placement into the "Top 100 Classic Websites" by PC Magazine in
2007,[55] and winning the "People's Voice Award" from the Webby Awards in 2008.[56]

On July 20, 2008, Facebook introduced "Facebook Beta", a significant redesign of its user interface
on selected networks. The Mini-Feed and Wall were consolidated, profiles were separated into
tabbed sections, and an effort was made to create a cleaner look.[57] Facebook began migrating
users to the new version in September 2008.[58]

In October 2008, Facebook announced that its international headquarters would locate in Dublin,
Ireland.[59] In September 2009, Facebook said that it had achieved positive cash flow for the first
time.[60] A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook the most used social networking
service by worldwide monthly active users.[61][better source needed] China blocked Facebook in
2009 following the Ürümqi riots.[62]

In 2010, Facebook won the Crunchie "Best Overall Startup Or Product" award[63] for the third year
in a row.[64]

The company announced 500 million users in July 2010.[65] Half of the site's membership used
Facebook daily, for an average of 34 minutes, while 150 million users accessed the site from mobile
devices. A company representative called the milestone a "quiet revolution."[66] In October 2010
groups were introduced.[67] In November 2010, based on SecondMarket Inc. (an exchange for
privately held companies' shares), Facebook's value was $41 billion ($50.9 billion in 2021
dollars[28]). The company had slightly surpassed eBay to become the third largest American web
company after Google and Amazon.com.[68][69]

On November 15, 2010, Facebook announced it had acquired the domain name fb.com from the
American Farm Bureau Federation for an undisclosed amount. On January 11, 2011, the Farm
Bureau disclosed $8.5 million ($10.2 million in 2021 dollars[28]) in "domain sales income",
making the acquisition of FB.com one of the ten highest domain sales in history.[70]

In February 2011, Facebook announced plans to move its headquarters to the former Sun
Microsystems campus in Menlo Park, California.[71][72] In March 2011, it was reported that
Facebook was removing about 20,000 profiles daily for violations such as spam, graphic content
and underage use, as part of its efforts to boost cyber security.[73] Statistics showed that Facebook
reached one trillion page views in the month of June 2011, making it the most visited website
tracked by DoubleClick.[74][75] According to a Nielsen study, Facebook had in 2011 become the
second-most accessed website in the U.S. behind Google.[76][77]