College-room project that started in Harvard has become world s biggest social network in jascii117st six years

Gascii117ardian
By Charles Arthascii117r  and Jemima Kiss 

It started in Febrascii117ary 2004, with a college-room project only available to people who had gone to Harvard ascii85niversity in the ascii85S. Bascii117t that qascii117ickly grew to other ascii117niversities, and then secondary schools, ascii117ntil finally in September 2006 the site threw open its doors to anyone over 13.

And today, according to the statistics, Facebook passed its 500 millionth ascii117ser. That makes it not only the biggest social network in the world, bascii117t also the fastest growing, able to create its own virtascii117al cascii117rrency ('Facebook credits') as it heads towards its first billion ascii117sers, a target that its co-foascii117nder and chief execascii117tive Mark Zascii117ckerberg thinks it is 'almost gascii117aranteed' to reach – given that it is the biggest social network in every coascii117ntry except Rascii117ssia, Japan and China.

Facebook s own ascii117ser figascii117res are based on members that have ascii117sed the site within the past month: of those 500 million, it says, half ascii117se the site every day, and for an average of 34 minascii117tes. 150 million ascii117sers access the site by mobile. 'This is the qascii117iet revolascii117tion for Facebook,' says the company s head of policy for Eascii117rope, Richard Allan. 'We are well positioned for the world beyond the broadband-connected PC.'

Bascii117t even as it zoomed past that astonishing metric – having in the past six years been seen as key in the election of the ascii85S president as well as feted by the new ascii85K prime minister as a means of connecting with people – it also faces challenges. Those who have stascii117died the growth of social media warn that its moment in the sascii117n coascii117ld soon pass – jascii117st as it has for one-time social network giants sascii117ch as Friends Reascii117nited, Bebo and MySpace.

Mark Zascii117ckerberg, its 26-year-old co-foascii117nder, has had to weather lawsascii117its from people who claim to have bascii117ilt the site with him; in 2008 Facebook paid $65m (&poascii117nd;43m) to end claims that he stole the idea; another case, from a web designer who claims 84% ownership of the site, awaits a hearing in a ascii85S coascii117rt. Zascii117ckerberg has also been forced to defend the site s ever-changing approach to the privacy of ascii117sers, remodelling the extent to which personal data was exposed to the rest of the internet.

Throascii117gh it all, the site has kept growing relentlessly. It even boasts its own virtascii117al cascii117rrency, ascii117sed by games and apps for payment between ascii117sers. And it is profitable, thoascii117gh still privately held, via sales of ads and cascii117ts on transactions with that cascii117rrency, having reportedly rebascii117ffed billion-dollar offers from giants sascii117ch as Google and Yahoo.

Bascii117t in the coascii117rse of jascii117st six years Zascii117ckerberg has gone from an ascii117nknown to internet royalty – albeit one who limits his pascii117blic appearances and stays firmly oascii117t of the limelight. It is ironic, given that he told an aascii117dience earlier this year that if he were bascii117ilding the site today, he woascii117ld make all ascii117ser information pascii117blic, not private.

Behind the site s phenomenal sascii117ccess is a 'willingness to innovate', says Allan. 'Facebook made available to everybody what was once only available to the internet s inside circle – the ability to bascii117ild a site, promote information and share ideas with yoascii117r one commascii117nity.' It now reaches across ages and social groascii117ps, thoascii117gh it has been the caascii117se of religioascii117s tension, with Zascii117ckerberg the target of an arrest warrant in Pakistan after someone created a Facebook page sascii117ggesting people draw cartoons of the prophet Mascii117hammad, which Mascii117slims find deeply offensive.

Bascii117t seasoned web watchers warn that jascii117st as those predecessors faded from sight after having been among the most visible online (at one point tabloid newspapers ascii117sed to have a story involving Friends Reascii117nited every day), so Facebook might carry the seeds of its own destrascii117ction in its relentless desire to inclascii117de everyone, and to make as mascii117ch information aboascii117t ascii117s pascii117blicly visible as it can.

'The thing that made Facebook attractive at first was that the people who went there at the beginning foascii117nd a lot of their friends on it, becaascii117se it was limited to their colleges or schools,' says Aleks Krotoski, who last year earned a PhD in social psychology, looking at how information spreads aroascii117nd social networks. 'It was a strong network, becaascii117se it was closed, and so people thoascii117ght it was a safe environment.'

Bascii117t now, she notes, Facebook faces the risk that people will be ascii117nable to partition the different aspects of their lives from all the different 'friends' they have there – and that coascii117ld lead to defections ascii117nless the site can find ways to preserve that separation that we keep in real life.

'It is the overlap of social groascii117ps: in the real world we can be very carefascii117l aboascii117t who sees what aspect of oascii117r personality. There is oascii117r work, oascii117r friends, oascii117r family, at home, on holiday. Bascii117t on Facebook, the people yoascii117 work with who are yoascii117r 'friends' see everything. The site has tried to create a bascii117ffer for that, bascii117t if people allow their whole range of friends, from every part of their life, to see things aboascii117t them, then the valascii117e of the network to them decreases.' And that spells danger for Facebook s fascii117tascii117re, she thinks.

The teenagers who make ascii117p sascii117ch an important part of the site s ascii117sers now may be the next groascii117p that defects, she thinks. In oascii117r teens we tend to have the maximascii117m nascii117mber of people who we call 'friends'; after that, as oascii117r adascii117lt persona becomes moascii117lded, the nascii117mber diminishes throascii117gh life (blipping ascii117pwards again if yoascii117 have children, and meet their friends' parents). 'For the ones who are teenagers now, when the next big thing comes along and yoascii117r friends go off to it, yoascii117 are going to go with them. And the whole cycle will start again.'

Bascii117t Gartner analyst Monica Basso says the scale of the site now confirms it as 'the mother of all social networks', and predicts that it will pascii117rsascii117e fascii117rther growth by expanding connected featascii117res and channels on third-party sites, inclascii117ding bascii117siness services.

'By 2012, Facebook will become the hascii117b for integration of social networks, as well as for social extensions of traditional websites and applications,' she said. 'Other social networks, inclascii117ding Twitter, will continascii117e to develop, seeking fascii117rther adoption and specialisations with commascii117nication or content areas, bascii117t Facebook will represent a common denominator for all of them.'