Ever since its inception in 2004, Facebook has become a part and parcel of our lives. Over the years, it grew into one of the largest social media platforms in the world. Today, Facebook has more than 2 billion active global users. Started as a college project, Facebook redefined the way the world connects. Here are some interesting facts about this social media giant.
Unknown facts about Facebook
1) Before Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, who was a coding buff, developed Facemash as a part of his project at Harvard University. Facemash complied two pictures and placed them next to each other, asking users to choose who looked better. Facemash gained immense popularity in Harvard after going live. This provoked Zuckerberg to improvise it into Facebook.
2) American actor Al Pacino was the first face of Facebook. The site initially displayed a header image featuring a man’s face hidden behind a binary code. It was later found out, the man was none other than Al Pacino.
3) Facebook is blue because of the founder’s red-green colorblindness. In an interview, Zuckerberg once said, “Blue is the richest color for me — I can see all of blue.”
4) The Like button on Facebook was initially planned to be called ‘Awesome.’ Facebook’s engineer, Andrew Bosworth, said he was keen on naming the button ‘Awesome,’ but Zuckerberg was against it and the button eventually went on to be called ‘Like.’
5) Peter Thiel, the co founder of PayPal, was the first major investor to support Facebook. Thiel, recognizing the site’s potential, gave around $ 500,000 to Facebook in the year 2004.
6) Many companies like Microsoft, Yahoo and Google tried to buy Facebook, but Zuckerberg remained adamant about not selling it.
7) Facebook’s user base grows by eight people every second, that is, 7,246 people every 15 minutes.
8) With 122.3 million likes for his page, Cristiano Ronaldo is the most popular person on Facebook. Shakira is second, with 101.2 million likes.
9) Anything you type in the status update box, even if you don’t post it, will be sent and stored on Facebook servers.
10) 4th February is celebrated as Friends Day and Facebook was launched on 4th February 2004, in honour of this day.
Which of these facts about Facebook did you like the most? Comment below and let us know.