On February 4, the social media site Facebook turned 20, marking a milestone not lost on its CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The 39-year-old tech mogul took to Instagram (owned by Meta) to reflect on the site’s early days and share a video montage.
In the video, Zuckerberg is seen with his college buddies Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes as they launched ‘thefacebook.com’ from their Harvard dormitory in 2004. The group later grew the website to include students from other colleges and universities, high schoolers, and professionals with corporate email addresses. It became a venue for connecting with just about anyone, anywhere, and by 2023, it was reportedly being used by more than 3 billion people monthly.
The site is credited with changing online communication and reshaping our digital landscape. It also boosted the economy, helping businesses find customers and create jobs. While rival sites like MySpace existed before it, Facebook quickly dominated as a cultural touchstone and became the place to be. Facebook has been redesigned dozens of times, but its mission remains: connect people online and make mountains of money from advertising.
Facebook’s popularity continues to rise globally, though the company has experienced some low points over the past two decades. Earlier this year, lawmakers grilled Zuckerberg during a Senate hearing about how his platform affects children and teens. Zuckerberg, who is the majority owner of the site and its parent company, Meta, was pushed by parents whose children had committed suicide or suffered from drug overdoses that they said wouldn’t have happened without social media.
Despite high-profile controversy and privacy scandals, most analysts do not see Facebook as going anywhere anytime soon. Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst with Insider Intelligence, says the site has reshaped our culture and will continue to grow globally, mainly as improvements in Internet connectivity boost take-up in emerging markets.
However, Williamson does acknowledge that Facebook needs more user growth among younger users and is facing some challenges in the US market as it continues to sift out destructive content and false information from its news feed.
Regardless of what lies ahead, it is clear that people are still hooked on the Facebook experience. Its reach has grown to more than three billion people, increasing as Internet connectivity improves in developing countries. With its new video montage and a message that promises “the best is yet to come,” Zuckerberg has clarified that the company will keep evolving and staying relevant. That is good news for advertisers looking to reach a large audience at scale. The only question is, what will the next 20 years bring?
