What type of website is Facebook?

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Facebook is an online social networking
service , whose name stems from the
colloquial name for the book given to
students at the start of the academic
year by some university administrations
in the United States to help students
get to know each other. [7] It was
founded in February 2004 by Mark
Zuckerberg with his college roommates
and fellow Harvard University students
Eduardo Saverin , Andrew McCollum ,
Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.[8]
The website's membership was initially
limited by the founders to Harvard
students, but was expanded to other
colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy
League , and Stanford University. It
gradually added support for students at
various other universities before
opening to high school students, and
eventually to anyone aged 13 and over.
Facebook now allows any users who
declare themselves to be at least 13
years old to become registered users of
the site. [9]
Users must register before using the
site, after which they may create a
personal profile , add other users as
friends, and exchange messages,
including automatic notifications when
they update their profile. Additionally,
users may join common-interest user
groups, organized by workplace, school
or college, or other characteristics, and
categorize their friends into lists such as
"People From Work" or "Close Friends".
As of September 2012, Facebook has
over one billion active users,[10] of
which 8.7% are fake. [11] According to a
May 2011 Consumer Reports survey,
there are 7.5 million children under 13
with accounts and 5 million under 10,
violating the site's terms of service. [12]
In May 2005, Accel partners invested
$12.7 million in Facebook, and Jim
Breyer [13] added $1 million of his own
money to the pot. A January 2009
Compete.com study ranked Facebook
as the most used social networking
service by worldwide monthly active
users.[14] Entertainment Weekly
included the site on its end-of-the-
decade "best-of" list, saying, "How on
earth did we stalk our exes, remember
our co-workers' birthdays, bug our
friends, and play a rousing game of
Scrabulous before Facebook?" [15]
Facebook eventually filed for an initial
public offering on February 1, 2012, and
was headquartered in Menlo Park,
California.[2] Facebook Inc. began
selling stock to the public and trading on
the NASDAQ on May 18, 2012. [16]
Based on its 2012 income of USD 5.1
Billion, Facebook joined the Fortune
500 list for the first time, being placed
at position of 462 on the list published in
May 2013.[17]