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5 Things You Didn’t Know about Facebook

fabebook-likeFacebook, the popular social networking site, is a household name these days. Though it started with humble beginnings, it now features almost 800 million users; accounting for around 11 percent of the world’s total population of 7 billion people. Despite it’s success, there are still many things that its users don’t know about this social networking platform.

Majority is Not in the U.S.

Surprisingly, despite being an ‘American invention,’ Facebook is more popular outside the United States than within. Currently, approximately 70 percent of all the users on Facebook do not live in the United States. Of course, Facebook has adapted to this over the years and currently offers the site up in more than 70 different languages.

Part of Day to Day Living

In some countries, Facebook has been integrated into people’s daily lives in more ways than one. For example, in Australia, the court system can serve court notices through Facebook. Furthermore, a Facebook summons, as it is known, is considered legally binding by the Commonwealth of Australia.

Facebook Sells User Information

Historically, Facebook was able to sell its’ users information to different corporations, thus funding the website and its staff. The process involves allowing different companies to harvest information from a person’s daily activities, thus conducting “market research.” However, certain countries and even entire continents (i.e., the European Commission) are working to put a stop to this and make it so that users have the choice to ‘opt in’ on these practices.

Facebook or TheFacebook?

When it first got it’s start, Facebook was actually known as “TheFacebook.” aunched on February 4th, 2004 at the domain name “thefacebook.com.” In 2005, Facebook dropped ‘the’ and simply became ‘Facebook,’ after purchasing the domain name for $200,000.

Potential Facebook Buyers

To date, 11 different companies have tried to buy out Facebook. This includes the likes of Google (which made two attempts,) MySpace, NBC, Yahoo (which also made two attempts,) AOL, and Microsoft. One company, Viacom, made three separate attempts to purchase the looming social networking giant. However, Mark Zuckerburg has held strong on his company, refusing to sell each and every time.

Today, Facebook is valued at anywhere from 50 billion to 65 billion, depending on who is being quoted. A movie has been made and the site has gone through many different upgrades, all of which have seen some considerable backlash from the users. Despite this, Facebook remains the most popular social networking platform currently and few people know what other secrets lurk behind its doors.

About the author

Vikram

Vikram is a Digital Media Strategy Consultant who helps small business owners grow their
business. He is passionate about blogging, digital marketing, and emerging technologies.

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