Which came first, Facebook or Twitter?
Facebook came first, by 2 years. TheFacebook launched for Harvard students only.
Side by side
| Year | 2004 | 2006 |
|---|---|---|
| Date | 2004-02-04 | 2006-03-21 |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | TheFacebook launched for Harvard students only. | Jack Dorsey posted the first tweet. |
Facebook launched on 4 February 2004 restricted to Harvard email addresses, opened to other universities through 2004 and 2005, and to anyone over 13 with an email address in September 2006. It is six years younger than Google and a year older than YouTube. Its predecessor Facemash, which compared students' photographs, was shut down by the university within days in 2003.
The first tweet — "just setting up my twttr" — went out on 21 March 2006, and the service opened publicly that July. The 140-character limit came from SMS: a text message allows 160 characters and 20 were reserved for the username. When the limit doubled to 280 in 2017 the SMS constraint had been irrelevant for years.
Common questions
- Which came first, Facebook or Twitter?
- Facebook, by 2 years — 2004 against 2006.
- When did Facebook start?
- 2004. TheFacebook launched for Harvard students only.
- When did Twitter start?
- 2006. Jack Dorsey posted the first tweet.
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Sources
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)