Facebook: The rise and soar of THE Social Network

October 28, 2003 - Mark Zuckerberg, sophomore at Harvard wrote the code for Facemash. He hacked into Harvard's computer system and stole ID photos from nine dorm houses with the intention to compare photos side by side to determine 'who's hotter?" but site was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration.

• Zuckerberg was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy, and faced expulsion. Ultimately, the charges were dropped. 

• Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final, by uploading 500 Roman Art images to a website, with one image per page along with a comment section. He opened the site up to his classmates, and people started sharing their notes.Source

January 2004 - Inspired by an editorial in the Harvard Crimson about the Facemash incident, Zuckerberg began writing code for new website.

Feburary 4, 2004 - Zuckerberg launched TheFacebook www.thefacebook.com restricted for Harvard students only, within one month more than half of Harvard's undergrad student body was registered on thefacebook.com

March 2004 - Facebook expanded to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale. It soon opened to the other Ivy League schools, Boston University, New York University, MIT, and gradually most universities in Canada and the United Statessource


late Spring 2004 - Facebook became Incorporated. Sean Parker, entrepreneur advising Zuckerberg became company's president.



June 2004 - Facebook moved its base of operations to Palo Alto, California and later that month received its first investment from Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal.

September 2005 -  Company purchased domain name facebook.com for 200,000. www.facebook.com

• Facebook launced a high school version and expanded membership to employees of sever companies including Microsoft and Apple.

September 26, 2006 - Facebook.com was opened to everyone 13 and above with a valid email address.

October 24, 2007 - Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion. Microsoft's purchase included rights to place international ads on Facebook

October 2008 - Facebook announced that it would set up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.

September 2009 - For the first time, Facebook earned more money than it spent last quarter. Zuckerberg wrote "cash flow positive" in a blog post on facebook announcing the accomplishment.Source

November 2010 - Facebook's value was 41 billion making it the third largest U.S web company behind Google and Amazon.

Early 2011 - Facebook moved its headquarters to Menlo Park, California

June 2011 - Facebook reached one trillion page view, making it the most visited website in the world.

March 2012 -  Facebook announced App Center, an online mobile store which sells applications that connect to Facebook. The store will be available to iPhone, Android and mobile web users

April 2012 - Facebook bought Instagram for 1 billion dollars.

May 2012 - Facebook acquired social discovery start-up Glancee

May 17, 2012- Facebook Inc held an initial public offering Facebook, Inc, negotiating a share price of $38 apiece, valuing the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly public company.

•  After the IPO, Zuckerberg will retain a 22% ownership share in Facebook and will own 57% of the voting shares.
•  The IPO raised $16 billion, making it the third largest in U.S. history.
• The shares began to be traded on May 18, and though the stock struggled to stay above the IPO price for most of the day, it set a new record for trading volume of an IPO Source

Call me a Marketing Geek!

Not too long ago I wrote a post about Kim Kardashian and her savvy branding and marketing strategy, so I was more than thrilled when I ran across this article on AtlantaPost.com.


Kim Kardashian's 18 Million Wedding Day Profit: 9 Marketing Lessons
By Alexis Garrett Stodghill


Kim Kardashian might be famous for dating black male celebrities and flashing major cleavage, but her business sense is sharp and also to be applauded. No stranger to selling herself well, the sex tape scandal star turned reality TV queen has worked her marketing magic yet again through her love life. Capitalizing mightily on her recent marriage to Kris Humphries, it is estimated that Kim was able to produce most of her $10 million celebrity wedding for free. She (and the corporate interests behind her) also stand to make $17.9 million off the nuptials — in profit. If you look at the total value raked in by the Kardashian clan for her heavenly union, that’s almost $30 million in cash, goods and services. How was a relatively talent-free but very pretty woman able to do this? There is something to be gained from mimic{k}ing Kim’s self-promoting genius. Her wedding is a case study of business wisdom we can apply to everyday scenarios.



Tap Your Personal Life to Promote Your Business
Kim Kardashian and her entire family have built their empire on over-sharing the intimate details of their lives. Her wedding is no different. In fact, by exposing every element from the proposal to the wedding shower, Kim was able to build interest for the big event (and sell every moment in the timeline). In her article on Kardashian’s marketing acumen, Marianne Bickle writes: “One of the best marketing tactics is to… Let people and organizations know what your business is about, how you benefit the community and upcoming events. Toot your horn so that the entire world may hear the music.” Your level of sharing might not be as high as Kim’s but your brand will benefit from spreading knowledge of as much of yourself as you can in a positive way

please continue reading it here!

The Number-Cruncher

America is drowning in a sea of debt. Aaron Patzer created a program to simplify people's finances -- and help them make smarter spending decisions.

Aaron Patzer was always one to stay on top of his personal finances. He would usually spend time on the weekend updating his account balances with traditional software programs like Quicken and Microsoft Money. There was only one problem: "Quicken wasn't quick," Patzer jokes.

He spent hours manually inputting numbers into spreadsheets and trying to categorize his spending activity. Patzer says he became increasingly frustrated by the amount of effort that these programs required for what he considered to be very basic -- and often unhelpful -- results.

So began his quest to build Mint.com, a tool that would make managing personal finances quick and easy. "I wanted something you could set up and that would get your finances organized in five minutes or less," he says. The version of Mint.com that Patzer eventually launched in September 2007 was exactly that -- user-friendly and required minimal effort.

Continue reading on inc.com

I must admit, I love mint.com and I use my mint.com app very often to help keep track of my finances.