In 2004, Facebook had 70,000 users — most of them Ivy League elites. Most people had no idea it existed. But before the site hit the nearly billion yokels it boasts today, one kid travelled NYC to sell the idea. This is what it looked like.
That kid was Eduardo Saverin, since immortalised in The Social Network as Mark Zuckerberg’s treachery victim. On a summer jaunt through New York City, he presented the Facebook to sceptical ad execs, who weren’t sure if this “profile” and “friends” thing would really take off. Now, of course, every corporation on the planet is desperate for you to give a damn about its vacuous Facebook page.
Things were different then, as you can see from this media deck obtained by Digiday, depicting a social network in its infancy, concerned only with college kids and the classes they took. Explaining Facebook to someone who’s never heard of it sounds like a scene from a terrifying time travel flick, and comes across hilariously quaintly today:
“Thefacebook.com website allows your company to reach college students, alumni, faculty, and staff at the library, their work, home or dorm room.”
The library! Oh brother. Now most Facebook users are barely able to read.
For the rest of the precious slides, head over to Digiday.