No Boundaries award

Mark Zuckerberg started the social networking site Facebook in 2004 from his dorm room at Harvard University. Initially available only to Harvard students as a directory of personal information and photos, the Internet site eventually expanded to other Ivy League colleges, high schools, and then the public at large.

As of September 2009, Facebook had more than 300 million active users around the globe – having doubled its user base in just eight months. Facebook is the fourth most trafficked website globally, according to figures compiled by Alexa Internet. It is signing up nearly a million new members a day. Market watcher Nielsen Online reported in June 2009 that total time spent on the social networking site rose from 1.7 billion minutes in April 2008 to 13.9 billion minutes in April 2009, making it the top social network in terms of the amount of time users spend on the site. It has become a global phenomenon, as more than 70 percent of its members live outside the USA.

Facebook registration is free, requiring only an email address. Members use the site to keep in touch with friends, meet people with common interests, play games, share photos, links, and videos, chat live and transfer money. Even the Pope is active on Facebook, offering an application called “the pope meets you on Facebook.”

Facebook has had its share of controversies, most frequently about its privacy policies and, in some quarters, for its activism. For example, members have used it to organize protests, such as mobilizing millions of people around the world in 2008 to march against practices of the FARC rebels in Colombia. Facebook has at times been banned by countries such as Syria and Iran.

Developers have built more than 52,000 Facebook applications such as “Name that Tune” or “Poker Palace” with hundreds more added each day. To tap the online-advertising market, the company in November 2007 launched Facebook Ads, which allows businesses to build their own online ad campaigns. Zuckerberg says Facebook already works with more than 70 percent of the 100 largest advertisers in the US.

Facebook is financed by venture capital and an investment from Microsoft. In October 2007, Microsoft paid US$240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook, which gave the company a valuation of US$15 billion. In May, 2009, a Russian investment firm paid US$200 million for a 1.96% stake, implying a lower US$10 billion value for Facebook. Yahoo! reportedly offered to buy Facebook for US$1 billion in late 2006, but Zuckerberg turned down the offer.

Facebook remains privately held and does not disclose financial information, but estimates of its 2008 revenues range from $250 million to $400 million and that reportedly will grow to $500 million in 2009. Advertising Age estimates that developers of Facebook applications will achieve revenue of nearly $500 million this year.