It’s easy to think of Facebook as this ancient, permanent fixture of the internet, like it was just born out of the ether along with Google and email. But the reality is much more chaotic. If you’re asking when did facebook come out, the short answer is February 4, 2004.
That was the day a 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg hit "upload" from his messy dorm room at Harvard.
But "coming out" meant something very different back then. It wasn't a global app. It wasn't even called Facebook. It was "TheFacebook," and unless you had an @harvard.edu email address, you weren't getting in. Honestly, the site looked like a plain digital phone book because, well, that’s exactly what it was meant to be.
The Dorm Room Era: February 2004
Zuckerberg didn't just wake up and build a billion-dollar empire. He had a bit of a "mad scientist" phase first. In late 2003, he created a site called Facemash. It was—to put it bluntly—pretty problematic. It let students compare two photos of their classmates to see who was "hotter." Harvard shut it down in days, and Zuck almost got expelled.
But the seed was planted. People loved the digital directory aspect.
On that cold Wednesday in February 2004, when did facebook come out to the public (or at least the Harvard public), it was an instant hit. Within 24 hours, about 1,200 to 1,500 students had signed up. Zuckerberg’s roommates—Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes—all pitched in. Saverin famously put up the first $1,000 to keep the servers running.
Why the "The" Matters
If you watch The Social Network, there’s that famous scene where Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake) tells Zuckerberg to "drop the 'The'." That actually happened, though not exactly like in the movies.
Originally, the site lived at thefacebook.com.
It stayed that way for over a year.
It wasn't until August 2005 that the company officially bought the domain facebook.com for $200,000. That’s a lot of money for a name change, but it signaled they were moving past the "college project" vibe. By then, they were already expanding like crazy.
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The Expansion Timeline
- March 2004: It spreads to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale.
- Summer 2004: The team moves to Palo Alto, California. This is when it stops being a hobby.
- September 2005: High schoolers are allowed to join. (This was a huge deal at the time; the college kids weren't happy).
- September 26, 2006: The big one. Facebook opens to anyone over 13 with a valid email address.
When Did Facebook Come Out to the Whole World?
While the 2004 date is the official birthday, September 2006 is when the world as we know it changed. Before that, you had to be part of an "approved" institution. Opening the floodgates changed the platform's DNA.
Suddenly, your mom could have a profile.
This was also the year they introduced the News Feed. Believe it or not, people hated it at first. Users actually staged digital protests because they felt like their privacy was being invaded. Before the News Feed, you had to manually click on a friend’s profile to see if they changed their relationship status or posted a photo. The idea of a "feed" showing you everyone's business at once felt like stalking.
Zuckerberg stood his ground, though. He basically told everyone they’d get used to it. And they did.
Features We Forget Weren't Always There
It’s weird to look back at the early versions. There was no "Like" button until 2009. Think about that for a second. For five years, you just... commented? Or "poked" people?
The Poke was a weird, vaguely aggressive way to say hi without actually saying anything. It was the primary form of communication for a while.
Then you had the "Wall." It wasn't a stream; it was literally just a space on your profile where people could leave messages. It felt like a digital locker that your friends could scrawl on with Sharpies.
The Pivot to Meta
By the time 2021 rolled around, the "Facebook" brand was carrying a lot of baggage—lawsuits, privacy scandals like Cambridge Analytica, and a general sense that it was for "older people."
In October 2021, Zuckerberg announced the parent company was rebranding to Meta.
The app is still called Facebook, of course. But the focus shifted to the "Metaverse" and AI. It's a long way from a dorm room project meant to help Harvard kids find out who was in their Sociology 101 class.
Actionable Takeaways for the History-Curious
If you’re researching this for a project or just a trivia night, keep these specific details in your back pocket:
- The Launch Date: February 4, 2004.
- The First Investment: $500,000 from Peter Thiel in June 2004.
- The Domain Cost: $200,000 for facebook.com in 2005.
- The Public Opening: September 26, 2006.
Understanding when did facebook come out isn't just about a date on a calendar. It’s about the shift from exclusive "ivory tower" networking to a global utility. Whether you love it or deleted your account years ago, there’s no denying that that one night in a Harvard dorm changed how we talk to each other forever.
Check your own "On This Day" or "Memories" section on the app if you still have it. It’ll usually tell you exactly what year you joined, which for most of us, was a lot longer ago than we care to admit.