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MENLO PARK, Calif. — Facebook, the social media giant that has found its way into billions of lives, turned 10 Tuesday.
Launched from a dorm room on Feb. 4, 2004, the network now serves 1.23 billion active users, according to Facebook. To celebrate its special day, Facebook announced it would send a personal thank you to each and every user in the form of a video, slide show or note, depending on how much content a user has shared on the site.
"It's been an amazing journey so far, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it," founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote on the site's anniversary. "It's rare to be able to touch so many people's lives, and I try to remind myself to make the most of every day and have the biggest impact I can."
The video "Look Back" was designed to let users reminisce about their time on Facebook with some of the their most popular posts and pictures set to music. People can find their personal gift by going to the Look Back page.
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"One of the things that motivated us was that there's really only a handful of companies that could take on something like this — that could render videos for as many people as we can," engineering lead Nick Kwiatek told The Verge.
Facebook has out-lived other social media platforms like MySpace, which have faded out after several years of popularity. The majority of adults and teens have a Facebook page, with 57 percent of all adults and 73 percent of all people ages 12-17 actively using the site, according to a Pew Research survey released Monday.
More than half of all adult users have more than 200 friends in their network, surveyors found. The average 18- to 29-year-old has 500 friends.
"People often ask if I always knew that Facebook would become what it is today. No way," Zuckerberg wrote. "I remember getting pizza with my friends one night in college shortly after opening Facebook. I told them I was excited to help connect our school community, but one day someone needed to connect the whole world."
Zuckerberg said he believes the network has a responsibility to help connect even more people. Currently, Facebook allows people to share moments, but he hopes it will become a tool to answer complex questions and issues.
"That's why I'm even more excited about the next 10 years than the last," he wrote. "The first 10 years were about bootstrapping this network. Now we have the resources to help people across the world solve even bigger and more important problems."
Key moments from Facebook history:
February 2004: Facebook is launched
December 2004: Facebook reaches a million users
March 2005: Facebook grows to support 800 college networks
December 2005: Facebook reaches six million users
September 2006: Facebook launches the news feed
September 2006: Facebook opens registration up to everyone
December 2006: Facebook reaches 12 million users
December 2007: Facebook reaches 58 million users
July 2008: Facebook launches its iPhone app
February 2009: Facebook introduces the "like" button
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December 2009: Facebook reaches 360 million users
August 2010: Facebook launches Facebook Places
November 2011: Facebook reaches 845 million users
September 2011: Facebook introduces Timeline
April 2012: Facebook acquires Instagram
May 2012: Facebook holds its initial public offering
October 2012: More than a billion people are active on Facebook
July 2013: More than 100 million people use Facebook on their phone every month
(History source: Facebook)