“Is this perhaps the next big thing?” That was the question a CNBC news anchor asked Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. Less than three months earlier, on 4 February, the 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate had launched a website called ‘TheFacebook’, which served as an online directory for his fellow students. “When we first launched we were hoping for maybe 400, 500 people,” Zuckerberg told the host. “Now we’re at 100,000 people, so who knows where we’re going next... Maybe we can make something cool.”

Fifteen years since its inception, that number has now grown to 2.32 billion – almost one third of the world’s population. In that time, the social network’s name may have shortened but its business has grown exponentially. It has swallowed up the likes of Instagram and WhatsApp to become one of the biggest technology companies on the planet, while simultaneously making Zuckerberg the fifth wealthiest person living on it.

Beyond its size, Facebook, together with Google, now has direct influence over more than 70 per cent of internet traffic. So how did it go from a dorm room project to arguably the most influential company of the internet era?

Floating above the early competition

Facebook was not the first social network. One year before its launch saw the arrival of MySpace, which quickly grew to be the largest social networking site in the world.

Its success attracted a lot of attention, eventually leading to its acquisition by News Corporation for $580 million. For a brief while in 2006, it overtook Google to become the most visited website in the United States, but its star soon began to fade.

Mark Zuckerberg appeared on CNBC in 2004 when he was still a 19-year-old Harvard student to talk about ‘TheFacebook’ (Screengrab/ CNBC)

The demise of MySpace has been attributed to its corporate overlords. In his seminal book on social media Writing on the Wall, journalist Tom Standage writes: “Its new owner treated it as a media outlet rather than a technology platform and seemed more interested in maximising advertising revenue than in fixing or improving the site’s underlying technology.”

In contrast, Facebook was able to grow its user base by letting its users decide the direction of the platform. New features such as Facebook Chat had been requested by its users, while apps like FarmVille proved to be a surprise success in helping grow engagement.

By 2010, Facebook had overtaken MySpace as people flocked to Zuckerberg’s creation almost as quickly as they left MySpace. Two years later, Facebook went public with Zuckerberg retaining a controlling stake of the shares, meaning he would only have to answer to himself.

Taking on the tech giants

The success of Facebook drew the attention of Google, who in 2011 launched what it hoped would be the world’s biggest social network: Google+.

By linking all of Google’s consumer products into one online identity – Gmail, YouTube, etc – the tech giant believed it could take on Facebook by its sheer numbers. “Online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it,” Google’s senior vice president for engineering said in a blog post introducing Google+.

Mark Zuckerberg gives the opening address at the f8 Developer Conference on 21 April, 2010, detailing the site’s exponential growth (Getty Images)

For a while, it looked like it might work. Within a month of its launch, more than 10 million people had signed up and Facebook felt once again like the David to the Goliath of Google.

In response, Mark Zuckerberg declared a company-wide “lockdown” in order to figure out a strategy.

The war room tactics proved so effective that by 2018 Google+ had less than 7 million users, eventually leading to Google pushing forward the shutdown of its failed experiment.

Consolidating its position

In 2012, Facebook reached the one-billion user milestone and still showed no sign of slowing down. By this point a number of startups had emerged that were competing with Facebook for people’s screen time.

One of these was Instagram, which had grown to more than 50 million users since launching in 2010. While this was only a fraction of Facebook’s users, Zuckerberg identified it as a threat, but a threat that could not only be neutralised, but also capitalised upon.

Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Show all 15 1 /15 Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Facebook is born On 4 Feb, 2004, 19-year-old Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched a website called 'TheFacebook' from his dorm. Within 24 hours the college social network had more than 1,000 users Wikimedia Commons Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Winklevoss twins sue Zuckerberg Within one week of launching, fellow Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. It would be four years later when the resulting lawsuit was finally settled Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Open for business The social network finally opened it platform to everyone on 26 September, 2006. The move proved the catalyst in supercharging the site's already explosive growth PA Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Billion-dollar bid Yahoo offered $1 billion to buy Facebook in September 2006 but Zuckerberg turned it down. 'I don’t know what I could do with the money,' Zuckerberg reportedly said. 'I’d just start another social networking site' Reuters Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network In the money In September 2009, almost five years since the site launched, Facebook turned a profit for the first time Getty Images/iStockphoto Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Taking the lead Facebook overtook MySpace in 2010 to become the world’s most popular social network Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Taking on the tech giants In 2011, Google launched its own social network that it hoped would knock Facebook from its perch. Despite its initial success, Google+ ultimately failed and will be shut down completely in 2019 Getty Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Facebook goes public On 18 May, 2012, Facebook went public. The initial public offering raised $16 billion – the third largest in US history Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Gobbling up the competition Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for $1 billion, consolidating its position as the world's leading social network Reuters Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network One billion users On 4 October, 2012, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had hit 1 billion users. 'If you’re reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honour of serving you,' he wrote in a blog post Getty Images Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Expanding its empire In February 2014 Facebook acquired the messaging app WhatsApp for $19.3 billion REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Two billion users In June 2017, Facebook passed the 2 billion user milestone REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Privacy scandal On 17 March 2018, news broke that UK firm Cambridge Analytica had harvested data from around 87 million Facebook users for the purpose of political profiling in the build up to the 2016 US presidential elections Shutterstock Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Record profits Despite the scandals and subsequent #DeleteFacebook campaign, Facebook posted record profits just before its 15th anniversary, the equivalent of $7.37 from each of its 2.32 billions users iStock/Independent Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Unhappy users A study found that people are happier when they don’t use Facebook, adding to mounting evidence surrounding the impact social media has on mental health Rex Features

A $1bn acquisition finalised in September 2012 brought Instagram under Facebook’s control – a price that now seems like a bargain given the photo-sharing platform’s growth to more than 1 billion users.

The same tactic was used for the messaging app WhatsApp, which was acquired for $19.3bn in 2014. Less than five years later, WhatsApp has seen similar growth from around 500 million users to 1.5 billion.