Skip to main content

Facebook

See All Stories

Facebook is the most popular social media service in the world with 2.32 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2018

Facebook is the most popular social media service in the world with 2.32 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2018. It also averages 1.52 billion daily active users as of December 2018.

Facebook was launched in February of 2004 (as The Facebook) for college students and then rapidly grew as it opened the service to more than those with a .edu email address. It was the subject of the 2010 movie called “The Social Network“.

In 2012, the social media giant offered its IPO and Facebook earned the title of the fastest company to grow to $250 billion market capitalization in the S&P 500.

In recent years, the company has been at the center of attention related to its role in the Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Since then, it’s been a continual stream of negative news for the company. They recently had all of their enterprise certificates for iOS revoked after it was discovered they had repackaged Onavo VPN as a ‘Research’ app and were paying teens $20/month to sneakily sideload it.

In early 2019, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a “privacy shift” for the company. He outlined a detailed vision for the future of the social media platform, specifically its messaging services. Notably, in contrast to how the company operates today, he says the future of the platform will be privacy-focused with features like end-to-end encryption, interoperability between its various apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, reducing how long it holds data, secure storage of personal data, and more.

Chart provided by TradingView

META Chart by TradingView

Facebook working on an Android-based video chat device

Last year, Facebook poached Regina Dugan, the head of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects, to lead a new hardware group. Building 8’s first products are now coming into light as a new report notes the development of a HomePod smart speaker competitor and a video chat device. For those that remember Mark Zuckerburg’s security advice from last year, the rumors of these new products come with some irony.


Expand
Expanding
Close

Instagram Stories now at 250M users & adds Live Video replays, will expand to other services

After deciding to clone Snapchat’s Stories feature and roll it out to Instagram last August, today the company offered an update on progress, confirming the feature now has 250 million daily active users. That’s up from the 200 million it announced back in April when it officially surpassed Snapchat. In comparison, Snapchat was at around 166 million daily active users as of its last announced numbers in May.

The company is also announcing a new video replay feature that allows users to share clips of videos that were previously available as live video on Stories:


Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook fined €110M ($122M) for misleading EU over WhatsApp acquisition

Antitrust regulators in Europe have fined Facebook €110 ($122M) for misleading them over its acquisition of the secure messaging service WhatsApp.

The European Commission said that the fine would have been more than twice as high but for Facebook’s acknowledgement of wrong-doing and cooperation with the investigation …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook’s copycat spree continues with GoFundMe-style personal fundraising feature

Site default logo image

Facebook seems to be on something of a mission at present to copy all the best features from popular apps and services out there. Just a couple of days after it added Snapchat-style ephemeral stories, it has announced that it has created a GoFundMe type personal fundraising feature.

Personal fundraisers allow people to raise money for themselves, a friend or someone or something not on Facebook, for example a pet. Personal fundraisers will launch in the US for people aged 18 years or older, and in beta over the next few weeks, as we hope to continue to learn and improve the product to make it even more useful. For example, we will begin with six specific categories for critical financial needs and include a 24-hour fundraiser review process. As we learn more, we hope to expand our categories and automate more of the review process.

Although Facebook describes the six permitted categories as ‘specific,’ they seem to cover most potential needs between them …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook adds ephemeral Stories and 3D camera effects to its main app, yet another Snapchat clone

Site default logo image

Facebook is adding its version of ephemeral stories to the main Facebook app on iPhone and iPad from today. Adding another to the list of Snapchat rip-offs, a strip of profile pics from your friends will now appear along the top of the main feed. Tap to view their recent story updates; all photos and videos are automatically deleted after 24 hours.

Posting your own photos rips off more iconic Snapchat features, including animated 3D camera effects and face filters, stickers, the ability to add text or doodles, and more. You can post to all friends or selectively share to just a few people when posting a particular pic. Here’s how to make a story …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook begins testing iMessage-like reactions in Messenger, including a Dislike button

Site default logo image

With the release of iOS 10 last fall, Apple introduced a host of changes to the Messages app, including a new reactions feature. This feature allows users to long-press on an iMessage and add a reaction like a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to it.

Now, Facebook is apparently testing a similar feature in its Messenger app.


Expand
Expanding
Close

City Guides coming to Facebook app, suggests places & events, connects you to friends

Site default logo image

Facebook is testing a City Guides feature in its iOS app. When you’re visiting a city, the feature points you to popular attractions, upcoming events and places locals visit – but with the friend focus you’d expect from Facebook. The app highlights places friends have visited, and events friends are attending …


Expand
Expanding
Close