If you haven’t knew that Facebook was originally called Thefacebook you probably signed-up after the 2005. When Mark Zuckerberg launched the website from his dorm, he first used the as a way for his product to stand out from other Facebook pages (original name for a university student page). Exactly nine years later Thefacebook is now just Facebook, and the original meaning of the word has shaped up to become a name for the world’s largest social network tipping over one billions users by the end of the last year. So, how it all started and what made Mark ditch the the?
Beginning of 2004, Mark Zuckerberg was approach by Winklevoss brothers who had an idea to build a network which could be used by the all of the Harvard students. Mark was rather fond of the idea at the beginning, but soon started avoiding calls from the brothers as he was working on a little project of his own. Funded by Eduardo Savrin, his best friend at the university, Zuckerberg wanted to create a revolutionary social network which was to be used by his peers. On february the 9th, Thefacebook was officially launched. It took up pretty quickly, and just after a week more than 50 percent of the Harvard student body was using it.
Although Winklevoss brothers later filed a civil lawsuit, that didn’t stop Thefacebook from expanding rapidly. In just over a year, it incorporated all of the Ivy league schools and it didn’t stop there. It became the next big thing, as Mark gradually started to drift away from the studies in order to devote all of his time to Thefacebook. His team which was consisted of couple of roommates, soon became too small to handle such a monumental task. Much needed expansion was naturally coming, but his partner Eduardo had different plans. He wanted to monetize the website, but Zuckerberg was determined not to post banners on Thefacebook.
Thanks to the movie The Social Network which was written by an award winning writer Aaron Sorkin, we got a glimpse into the world of Facebook’s creator and the path he had chosen for his most precious project. Now, let’s rewind back to the 2005. Facebook is growing rapidly and people are starting to hear about it. One of those people is Sean Parker, an entrepreneur and the founder of Napster – a website notorious for illegal downloading of music which was later shut down by big music labels.
When Sean Parker reached out to Mark, he openly said that he was fascinated with Theacebook. He proposed a lunch, which Mark gladly excepted but his partner in business Eduardo was rather reluctant to the idea. Considering his problems with the law, Eduardo didn’t want Thefacebook to be associated with Sean. However, when three of them met Mark was instantly memorized by the well spoken Parker. As Eduardo stated on the trial later on, Zuckerberg was just fascinated with everything Sean had to say, and he said plenty of stuff.
Mentioning billions of dollars, Parker essentially predicted the future of Thefacebok. He also begged Mark to move to California which he eventually did, and as he was leaving the table he said the famous line: Drop the the… just Facebook… it’s cleaner.
After that line, Mark decided to move to California and employ Parker who introduced him to investors. Facebook.com domain was acquired in 2005. for $ 200.000 dollars. They teamed up quite well, although at the expense of others. Person who suffered most out of this relationship is Eduardo, as his stock went to a mere 3% only later to be set at 5%. But don’t worry, his net worth is over 2 billion dollars nowadays.
As for the Parker, he was arrested for doing drugs which got him kicked out of the company. He also has quite a bit of loot today, and Zuckerberg still favorites Parker as he was the reason behind the ‘cool’ in Facebook and the loss of the infamous the.
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[…] 3. Sean Parker, co-founder of now-defunct music sharing site Napster, originally acquired the facebook.com domain name for $200,000. Parker was the driving force in the renaming of the site, and was highly influential as the site exploded in popularity. (source) […]
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[…] Zuckerberg made sure to implement Sean Parker’s advice of moving to California and changing his project’s name from Thefacebook to just Facebook. This […]
[…] 3. Sean Parker, co-founder of now-defunct music sharing site Napster, originally acquired the facebook.com domain name for $200,000. Parker was the driving force in the renaming of the site, and was highly influential as the site exploded in popularity. (source) […]