Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook with fellow Harvard students in February 2004.
The service originally launched as “TheFacebook” for Harvard students on February 4, 2004. Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes were among the early co-founders and collaborators. Membership later expanded to other universities and then to the general public.
Facebook changed its name from TheFacebook to Facebook in 2005 after acquiring the facebook.com domain. It became a major global social network by allowing users to create profiles, connect with friends, and share updates, photographs, and links.
The company became Facebook, Inc. in 2004 and was renamed Meta Platforms, Inc. in 2021. Facebook remains the name of the social-networking service, while Meta is the corporate parent. This distinction explains why older sources call the company Facebook and newer ones refer to Meta.