Facebook: From Social Network to Metaverse

In February 2004, a hoodie-clad Harvard sophomore launched a website from his dorm room. It was simple, almost crude: a digital directory for college students to connect, share, and yes—judge each other’s photos. That site was TheFacebook.com, and the student was Mark Zuckerberg.

Few could have predicted what would follow. Lawsuits. Betrayals. Billions. And eventually, a rebranding that would shift the focus of the entire company toward the next frontier of human connection: the metaverse. This is the story of how a college side project morphed into one of the most powerful companies in the world—riddled with ambition, vision, and no shortage of drama.

Now that you’ve hopefully checked out our amazing sponsors at Morning Brew. Let’s get into where it all started, Harvard.

Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t exactly a social butterfly at Harvard, but he had a gift. A coding prodigy, he had already made a name for himself by creating “Facemash”—a site that let users rank students’ attractiveness. The site went viral overnight, crashing Harvard’s servers. “I’m not proud of everything I’ve done,” he later admitted, “but I learned a lot.”

The creation of Facesmash created buzz around Zuckerberg’s name, and he was eventually approached by two twins at Harvard, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, alongside Divya Narendra. This group had been working on their own social networking idea, HarvardConnection (later renamed ConnectU). The idea was simple: connect students through profiles that listed basic info and photos, mimicking the paper “face books” Harvard distributed to freshmen. The only thing they needed was a developer, enter Mark Zuckerberg. Once they approached Mark with the idea, he said he was in, however, Mark had his own plans.

Mark spent the next few weeks fully building HarvardConnection with the help of his roommates Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Andrew McCollum. Once they were finished, they released their app, TheFacebook. The twins were furious. They accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea and sued him.

In 2008, after years of legal battles, Facebook agreed to settle. The Winklevosses received $65 million in cash and stock—a sum that would later grow exponentially. Still, they wanted more, alleging they were misled about the stock’s value. Courts eventually ruled against them.

This saga would become one of the defining conflicts in Facebook’s early mythologyand the centerpiece of The Social Network film that etched it into startup lore.

Another internal conflict was brewing—this time with Facebook’s co-founder and original CFO, Eduardo Saverin. Initially funding the site with $1,000 and serving as business lead, Saverin was instrumental in the early days. But as Facebook expanded beyond Harvard and attracted investor interest, tension mounted.

When Sean Parker (co-founder of Napster) joined the team as founding president, he and Zuckerberg saw Facebook’s future differently than Saverin did. While Zuckerberg wanted to aggressively scale, Saverin favored a more cautious, ad-driven monetization strategy. Zuckerberg was extremely dissatisfied with Saverin’s commitment and ideas and decided to take matters into his own hands. Saverin’s shares were diluted after Facebook reincorporated in Delaware and issued new stock. He sued. Facebook countersued.

Peter Thiel was the first major investor in Facebook, injecting $500,000 in 2004 for a 10.2% stake. His belief in Zuckerberg’s vision was unwavering: “He clearly had very strong product instincts,” Thiel recalled. Soon after, Accel Partners led a $12.7 million Series A round, and Facebook began expanding to other Ivy League schools, then colleges across the U.S., and eventually the world.

By 2006, anyone with a valid email address could join. That same year, Facebook launched its most controversial product to date: the News Feed. Users hated it at first—protests erupted, privacy complaints poured in. But Zuckerberg held his ground.

He won his bet. News Feed became Facebook’s core engine for engagement and ad revenue. Then came the acquisitions: Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 (a masterstroke), WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014 (jaw-dropping at the time), and Oculus VR for $2 billion (a bet on the future). Each move expanded Facebook’s reach—and solidified its dominance.

Facebook’s 2012 IPO was one of the most anticipated in tech history. It raised $16 billion, valuing the company at $104 billion—then the largest ever for a tech firm. But it wasn’t smooth sailing. Technical glitches plagued the debut, and the stock dipped in the months that followed.

Still, by 2013, Facebook had recovered. Its mobile strategy kicked in. Ads optimized. Revenue soared. Zuckerberg, once seen as the introverted coder, had transformed into a CEO with global influence—and immense power.

In October 2021, Zuckerberg made a stunning announcement: Facebook would become Meta.

Meta aimed to reimagine the internet—a virtual space where people could socialize, work, and play through avatars and immersive experiences. Skeptics abounded. Billions were poured into the project, and Reality Labs (Meta’s AR/VR division) posted massive losses.

At the same time, Facebook (now one of many apps under Meta) faced scrutiny over misinformation, privacy issues, and user fatigue. Whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony in 2021 added more fuel to the fire, revealing internal studies about Instagram’s harmful effects on teens. Still, Zuckerberg remained steadfast. To him, the metaverse wasn’t a pivot—it was evolution. “In the long run,” he told investors, “we’re going to play a historic role in building the next chapter of the internet.”

Today, Meta is more than a social network. It’s a conglomerate at the forefront of AI, VR, and global communication—with billions of users and influence few companies can match.

Mark Zuckerberg’s journey—from awkward college hacker to one of the most consequential tech founders of all time—remains a source of fascination and debate. Was he a visionary or a ruthless opportunist? Maybe both.

But one thing is certain: Facebook’s story isn’t just about technology. It’s about ambition. Control. Betrayal. And the belief that a single idea—born in a dorm room—can change how billions connect.

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