Facebook was launched six years ago today, on February 4, 2004. Originally called “Thefacebook” and located at thefacebook.com, it was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with some Harvard pals as a network for Harvard students. It opened first to other universities and later to everyone. 175 million people now log into Facebook every day. That’s more than 200 million unique visitors monthly. A year ago it had 150 million users.
Nick O’Neil, reading the Hitwise numbers, argues that Facebook is already the world’s largest news reader. Marshall Kirkpatrick, revising an earlier post, agrees and says that’s a good thing. At DigitalBeat, Kim-Mai Cutler says Facebook helps the news industry, but it’s no white knight.
Pew released a study yesterday finding, in part, that Teens Love Facebook, Hate Blogging, Are Always Online, and Don’t Use Twitter.
The Hitwise Intelligence numbers:
Birthday via Mashable. See also their Facebook Guide.