Twenty years after its launch, social media giant Facebook continues to show unprecedented staying power after burying early competitors like MySpace and Friendster and establishing a distinct foothold in the burgeoning social media landscape. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesStrong social connection was the linchpin of Facebook, differentiating it from other primordial social media sites. MySpace’s monthly active users had trickled down to an estimated 35 million in mid-2011, according to a Comscore report at the time. In contrast, by September of that year, Facebook was seeing almost 800 million monthly active users. In April 2012, the company acquired photo-centric social media platform Instagram for about $1 billion.

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Persons: Harvard University undergrad, Mark Zuckerberg, “, ”, Pablo Boczkowski, alums, ” Zuckerberg, Daniel Acker, Justin Timberlake, Friendster’s, Friendster, Boczkowski, Meta’s, ” Boczkowski, WhatsApp, Meta Organizations: New, New York CNN, Harvard University, Facebook, Communication Studies, Northwestern University, Harvard, New York Times, Bloomberg, Getty, MySpace, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Google, Meta, Inc, “, TikTok, Twitter Locations: New York, Zurich, India, Brazil, Argentina, Italy