Written by: Facebook Instagram Social media

When did social media start? (history of Instagram and Facebook)

Social media started with websites like facebook.com and all other websites after that, like YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Here I would explain a brief history of social media and how were other social media like Instagram started.

social media history



Social media background

Based on the timeline of social media LinkedIn was the first website that was launched in 2003, but it was more about uploading a resume, creating a professional profile, and finding jobs or employees.

Facebook was the first social media in which users could find and connect to their friends, and also friends of friends.

The start date of social media back to when a 13-year-old Mark was keen to connect his home’ computers to each other and connect persons at home without seeing each other from different rooms and computers.

His father was dentist, and his mother was psychologist. Later on, Mark at his adolescence could then discovered a messenger device through which he could connect his father’s dental office to the receptionist’s room. His idea was that his father could connect the receptionist without walking around.

Mark Zuckerberg’s childhood

Later on, as mark showed his talent in information technology and writing code, with the help of a tutor, he could start writing all amazing code to connect people all around different places.

Once he entered Harvard, as a student at Harvard, he used the profile pictures of students for his website “Facemash” with the idea of connecting students at Harvard.

However, once Facemash was banned because of the illegal use of students’ pictures, Mark didn’t give up writing code to socially connect people all around different places.

Soon, he could start the facebook.com with the help of two others at Harvard, and still, the idea of thefacebook.com was connecting students at Harvard.

What is Facebook background?

Social media started with the thefacebook.com by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends at Harvard to connect students at Harvard University.

But soon they dropped “the” from thefacebook.com, and it became facebook.com to connect not only Harvard university students but all other students like Stanford.

February 4, 2004, Facebook was launched. Mark Zuckerberg, a 19-year-old student at Harvard University, welcomed the users all around the globe to a website that has made him $33bn.

Mark Zuckerberg is the chairman and chief executive of Facebook

As Mark Zuckerberg mentioned in his television interview, the idea of facebook.com as the first social media in the world was about getting information about friends and friends of friends.

Soon, Facebook becomes more popular among all other people, and they could sign up and log in to the social media and find their friends by searching their name in the Facebook search bar.

When did Facebook go public?

Facebook went public with the initial public offering (IPO) on May 18, 2012. With the highest market capitalization of over $104 billion, Facebook had one of the largest IPOs in history.

Now Facebook has more than 2 billion users, and it is not the only social media to connect people, but Facebook business, and Facebook creator studio along with other social media like Instagram become a platform to give services to business by providing a platform for Ads or scheduling posts and receiving the social media metrics of their social media accounts.

When did Instagram start, and how does it work?

Instagram is a social media platform to share pictures, short videos, long videos, and sending direct messages.

Facebook bought Instagram in 2004, and People can sign up to Instagram by email, phone number, or Facebook profile.

According to Julian K. Gutman product lead at Instagram stated in his conference that Instagram works based on three main factors of connections, interest, and timeline in 2019.

There was much doubt about how Instagram works in 2019, and some claimed that Instagram is going to be on the chronological order, but it seems is not like that.

Julian K. Gutman, Product Lead of Instagram

Julian K. Gutman speaks at conference about the newest Instagram algorithm

Interest: it is important who you follow, or what posts you like, and post a comment on it. Instagram is equipped with the newest technology of image recognition to find what is users’ interest based on their likes, comments of posts and content.

Connections: Instagram shows the posts to whom you are interacting with them more. Therefore, making connections, sending direct messages, engaging with more people would enhance the probability of showing your posts to them more.

Timeline: Instagram shows the post of those who had sent them sooner than others, and now Instagram would not update the Instagram feed unless you refresh the Instagram feed, or tap on the new posts option on top of the page. in this way, no one would miss the posts from people who they have connections with.


Facebook is the first social media that could connect billions of people all around the globe. After Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are most popular media among users.

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