- Ronaldo scores in Portugal's Nations League win as Spain sink Denmark
- Interim boss Carsley has not applied for England job
- Mets hurler Senga ready to take on Dodgers in game one of NL Championship Series
- Ronaldo on target again as Portugal defeat Poland in Nations League
- Guardians rip Tigers 7-3 to advance in MLB playoffs
- AFP, BBC win top French war reporting awards
- Carsley goes back to basics as humbled England face Finland
- Alex Salmond: the man who took Scotland to the brink of independence
- Scotland's former leader Alex Salmond dies aged 69: party
- UN warns of catastrophe as Israel fights a two-front war
- Croatia extend Scotland's losing streak
- South Africa, New Zealand boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes
- 'Very challenging': Israel faces Hezbollah in tricky terrain
- Farrell begins to feel at home as Racing 92 beat Toulon
- South Africa boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes with Bangladesh win
- Samson ton powers India to T20 series sweep after record total
- Djokovic to face Sinner in Shanghai final with 100th title in sight
- UN peacekeepers to remain in Lebanon: spokesman
- Pro-Conquest film fuels debate in Mexico over colonial legacy
- Samson ton powers India to record 297-6 in Bangladesh T20
- New Zealand enjoy perfect start to America's Cup defence over Britain
- Pogacar emulates icon Coppi with fourth straight Il Lombardia triumph
- UN warns against 'catastrophic' regional conflict
- New Zealand crush Ineos Britannia in America's Cup opener
- Djokovic to face Sinner in blockbuster Shanghai Masters final
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- Sri Lanka seeks to match success in W.Indies T20s
- Sinner reaches Shanghai final, will end year number one
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Sabalenka downs Gauff in three sets to reach Wuhan final
- Israel warns south Lebanon residents to 'not return'
- Sinner tames Machac to reach Shanghai Masters final
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- Hezbollah fires at Israel as wars rage on Yom Kippur
- Analysts warn more detail needed on new China economic measures
- China tees up fresh spending to boost ailing economy
- China says will issue special bonds to boost ailing economy
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Dodgers drop Padres 2-0 to advance in MLB playoffs
- Alexei Navalny wrote he knew he would die in prison in new memoir
- Last-minute legal ruling allows betting on US election
- Despite hurricanes, Floridians refuse to leave 'paradise'
- Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes
- Trump demonizes migrants in dark, misleading speech
- X says 'alert' to manipulation efforts after pro-Russia bots report
- US, European markets rise before Boeing unveils sweeping job cuts
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Comoros shock Tunisia, Salah, Mbeumo strike in AFCON qualifiers
Facebook, the social network old-timer, turns 20
A simple hangout spot for young people when it arrived on the scene 20 years ago, Facebook has since become a battle-hardened behemoth with an insatiable appetite for your attention.
"I will never forget the day that I ran up to my high school's Mac lab and signed up for Facebook," Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg told AFP.
"You simultaneously felt that you were part of this small, exclusive community where your parents, grandparents and teachers weren't -- but also part of something much larger."
Launched as thefacebook.com by Mark Zuckerberg and three friends on February 4, 2004, the site was originally restricted to Harvard College students.
It became available to students at other US universities before opening to anyone in 2006.
Facebook became a venue for connecting with just about anyone, anywhere and by 2023 reported being used by more than 3 billion people monthly.
"Facebook, when it launched, was revolutionary," Enberg said.
"It's hard to overstate the impact that Facebook has had on shaping everything from pop culture to politics to how we behave online."
She noted Facebook's famous "feed" that served up photos, comments, or other "posts" its algorithm figured would grab the attention of users.
The more users engaged with the social network the more it could serve up money-making ads targeted using the vast amount of information people shared at Facebook.
It is credited with having helped open the door for content to "go viral" and fueled the trend of online-only news outlets.
- Ad behemoth -
Facebook gained a reputation for buying or copying potential rivals, now boasting a "family" of apps including Instagram and WhatsApp.
Zuckerberg, who still heads the company, stuck to a strategy of investing heavily to gain users before integrating money-making methods that usually involved targeted ads.
Along with Google, Facebook became an online advertising giant.
In 2022 -- a bad year for the Silicon Valley-based company -- its profits reached $23 billion.
The platform "is part of the digital landscape", particularly for "millennials" born in the 1980s or 1990s, according to Enberg.
"It remains irresistible to advertisers, thanks to its reach and performance," the analyst said of Facebook.
A business model built on using people's personal data to offer more attention-grabbing content and targeted ads has earned Facebook complaints and fines.
Fresh off accusations that Russia used the platform to try to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, it became embroiled in the Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal.
In 2021, it came under fire over whistleblower accusations that executives put profit over the safety and well-being of users.
Despite it all, Facebook has continued to grow.
And the tech titan's expansion has allowed it to invest in innovations including artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
Facebook changed its parent company name to "Meta" in late 2021, saying it was due to Zuckerberg's vision of immersive, virtual worlds referred to as the "metaverse" being the next major computing platform.
- 'My mom's friends' -
"We might be less engaged, but we haven't walked away because there really isn't an alternative," Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said of the staying power of the aging social network.
Facebook has also struck a chord with the addition of "groups" that lets users create communities around common interests like sports, celebrities or farming that connect online but also in the real world.
Also popular are marketplace features that let people buy or sell items.
"I went on Facebook because I knew my mom's friends would be interested," 18-year-old California babysitter Ruby Hammer said of using the social network to make money.
"And also, Marketplace, because I'm looking for a car."
Hammer connects with peers by sharing photos on SnapChat and Instagram, not on Facebook.
Analyst Enberg called buying Instagram in 2012 as part of a pivot to smartphone lifestyles one of the best business decisions made by Facebook.
The move eliminated a rival, provided a new forum for ads, and appealed to younger internet users losing interest in Facebook.
"Above all, it gives the company an app to rival Snapchat and TikTok", which are ultra-popular with teenagers," according to Enberg.
Today, more than half of Facebook users are between the ages of 18 and 34 years old, according to online insights company DataReportal.
But how engaged users are with the social network remains difficult to gauge.
"I go to Facebook very little, but what I post on Instagram automatically appears on Facebook too," said analyst Milanesi.
"So, I'm certainly counted as 'active'... The figures may not reflect reality."
M.Fischer--AMWN