The Invention of Facebook 👨💻
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Morning social networker!
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b83375c99ade4d9048bc_1.webp)
This is the original Facebook landing page circa 2005:
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b8334b975526400d4135_pasted_image_0.png)
Pretty cool, huh?
Check out the very bottom – ‘a Mark Zuckerberg production.’
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b833139050caead932aa_2.webp)
You know what Zuck was producing prior to this basic site with a huge paragraph announcing each and every university they were available at?
Wrong.
The original Mark Zuckerberg production – and the original Facebook for that matter – was a website to rate Harvard hotties.
It was 2 years earlier. 2003.
Mark Zuckerberg was a Harvard student by day and maniacal, self-taught programmer by night.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b833cdafadbbc6695f6c_3.webp)
Actually he was just kind of a maniacal, self-taught programmer all the time.
He really didn’t see a need for school if he could learn to build things on his own.
So one day Zuck’s roommates challenged him to create a website that would be more popular than Harvard’s dining hall website..
Boring.
But by my calculations (and a really stupid rabbit hole), that would mean:
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b8333a6ccd6ba380207d_4.webp)
30,000 web visits per day.
That was the number to beat.
So Zuckerberg stays up all night scraping the Harvard student directory for names and photos of students.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b8343bcb96d72cfd3aef_5.webp)
Surely he’d be using these names and photos to make it easier for new students to meet one another.
Right, Mark?
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b8344b975526400d4145_6.webp)
Are you lying to me?
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b83375c99ade4d9048cc_7.webp)
I think that’s a double negative.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b834139050caead93392_8.webp)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b8345f1e17fc975fadda_9.webp)
Huh?
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b834a7eadb5d72af1000_10.webp)
Uhh–
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b8335f1e17fc975fada8_11.webp)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b834cdafadbbc66960a8_12.webp)
Overnight, Mark had built FaceMash – a “hot or not” game to rate Harvard students on their looks.
Here’s the original landing page:
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b8343a6ccd6ba380208d_pasted_image_0.webp)
Now, remember those calculations we did earlier on the dining hall’s website traffic?
Ya?
Super unnecessary.
Mark’s FaceMash website SMOKED it.
Within hours, FaceMash had received 450,000 views.
Mark had created a viral hit that took Harvard’s campus by storm.
But 2 days later, he’s got a problem:
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b8345f1e17fc975fadb8_13.webp)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b8349d87c5869b80cc62_14.webp)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b834a7eadb5d72af1010_15.webp)
So Mark shuts down FaceMash but spins it into a legitimate Harvard student directory – TheFacebook.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b835cdafadbbc66962cd_16.webp)
At first you could only get on with an @harvard.edu email address.
But as the amount of people on the social network grew, so did its need to expand to other schools.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b8349d87c5869b80cc83_17.webp)
Then high schools:
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b8354b975526400d4155_18.webp)
Then the world:
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa49e57793ed61ecbd3fd/64d9b8353a6ccd6ba38020a6_pasted_image_0.webp)
Today they touch 3 billion people around the world 🤯
Stay Cute,
Henry & Dylan 🌈
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