ConnectU (originally HarvardConnection) was a
social networking
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
website launched on May 21, 2004,
that was founded by
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
students
Cameron Winklevoss
Cameron Howard Winklevoss (born August 21, 1981) is an American cryptocurrency investor and Olympic rower, who (with his brother) founded Winklevoss Capital Management and Gemini cryptocurrency exchange. He competed in the men's pair rowing eve ...
,
Tyler Winklevoss
Tyler Howard Winklevoss (born August 21, 1981) is an American investor, founder of Winklevoss Capital Management and Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, and Olympic rower. Winklevoss co-founded HarvardConnection (later renamed ConnectU) along with hi ...
, and
Divya Narendra
Divya Narendra (; born March 18, 1982) is an American businessman. He is the CEO and co-founder of SumZero along with Harvard classmate Aalap Mahadevia. He also co-founded HarvardConnection (later renamed ConnectU) with Harvard University classma ...
in December 2002.
Users could add people as friends, send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.
Users were placed in networks based upon the
domain name
A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
associated with the
email address
An email address identifies an email box to which messages are delivered. While early messaging systems used a variety of formats for addressing, today, email addresses follow a set of specific rules originally standardized by the Internet Engineer ...
they used for registration.
History
In December 2002, Harvard students and friends Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra wanted a better way to connect with fellow students at Harvard and other universities.
As a result, the three conceived of a
social network
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
for Harvard students named HarvardConnection,
which was to expand to other schools around the country.
In January 2003, they enlisted the help of fellow Harvard student,
programmer
A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software.
A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
and friend Sanjay Mavinkurve to begin building HarvardConnection.
Sanjay commenced work on HarvardConnection but left the project in the spring of 2003 when he graduated and went to work for
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
.
After the departure of Sanjay Mavinkurve, the Winklevosses and Narendra approached Narendra's friend, Harvard student and
programmer
A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software.
A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
Victor Gao to work on HarvardConnection.
Gao, a senior in
Mather House, had opted not to become a full partner in the venture, instead agreeing to be paid in a
work for hire
A work made for hire (work for hire or WFH), in copyright law in the United States, is a work that is subject to copyright and is created by employees as part of their job or some limited types of works for which all parties agree in writing to the ...
capacity on a rolling basis.
He was paid $400 for his work on the website code during the second half of 2003, then excused himself thereafter due to personal obligations.
Mark Zuckerberg
In November 2003, upon the referral of Victor Gao, the Winklevosses and Narendra approached
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), o ...
about joining the HarvardConnection team.
By this point, the previous HarvardConnection programmers had already made progress on a large amount of the coding: front-end pages, the registration system, a database, back-end coding, and a way users could connect with each other, which Gao called a "handshake". In early November, Narendra emailed Zuckerberg saying, "We're very deep into developing a site which we would like you to be a part of and ... which we know will make some waves on campus." Within days, Zuckerberg was talking to the HarvardConnection team and preparing to take over programming duties from Gao.
On the evening of November 25, 2003,
the Winklevosses and Narendra met with Zuckerberg in the dining hall of Harvard's
Kirkland House
Kirkland House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University, located near the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was named after John Thornton Kirkland, president of Harvard University from 1810 to 1828.
B ...
, where they explained to Zuckerberg the HarvardConnection website, the plan to expand to other schools after launch, the confidential nature of the project, and the importance of getting there first.
During the meeting, Zuckerberg allegedly entered into an
oral contract
An oral contract is a contract, the terms of which have been agreed by spoken communication. This is in contrast to a written contract, where the contract is a written document. There may be written, or other physical evidence, of an oral contract ...
with Narendra and the Winklevosses and became a partner in HarvardConnection.
He was given the private server location and password for the unfinished HarvardConnection website and code,
with the understanding that he would finish the programming necessary for launch.
Zuckerberg allegedly chose to be compensated in the form of
sweat equity Sweat equity is a non-monetary benefit that a company's stakeholders give in labor and time, rather than a monetary contribution, that benefit the company. Sweat equity is rewarded in the form of sweat equity shares. These are shares given out by a ...
.
On November 30, 2003, Zuckerberg told Cameron Winklevoss in an email that he did not expect completion of the project to be difficult. Zuckerberg wrote: "I read over all the stuff you sent and it seems like it shouldn't take too long to implement, so we can talk about that after I get all the basic functionality up tomorrow night."
The next day, on December 1, 2003, Zuckerberg sent another email to the HarvardConnection team. "I put together one of the two registration pages so I have everything working on my system now. I'll keep you posted as I patch stuff up and it starts to become completely functional." On December 4, 2003, Zuckerberg writes: "Sorry I was unreachable tonight. I just got about three of your missed calls. I was working on a
problem set A problem set, sometimes shortened as pset, is a teaching tool used by many universities. Most courses in physics, math, engineering, chemistry, and computer science will give problem sets on a regular basis. They can also appear in other subjects, ...
."
On December 10, 2003: "The week has been pretty busy thus far, so I haven't gotten a chance to do much work on the site or even think about it really, so I think it's probably best to postpone meeting until we have more to discuss. I'm also really busy tomorrow so I don't think I'd be able to meet then anyway." A week later: "Sorry I have not been reachable for the past few days. I've basically been in the lab the whole time working on a cs problem set which I'm still not finished with."
On December 17, 2003,
Zuckerberg met with the Winklevosses and Narendra in his dorm room, allegedly confirming his interest and assuring them that the site was almost complete. On the whiteboard in his room, Zuckerberg allegedly had scrawled multiple lines of code under the heading "Harvard Connection," and this would be the only time they saw any of his work.
On January 8, 2004, Zuckerberg emailed to say he was "completely swamped with work
hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
week" but had "made some of the changes ... and they seem
dto be working great" on his computer. He said he could discuss the site starting the following Tuesday, on January 13, 2004.
On January 11, 2004, Zuckerberg registered the domain name thefacebook.com. On January 12, 2004, Zuckerberg e-mailed
Eduardo Saverin
Eduardo Luiz Saverin (; ; born March 19, 1982) is a Brazilian billionaire entrepreneur and angel investor based in Singapore. Saverin is one of the co-founders of Facebook. In 2012, he owned 53 million Facebook shares (approximately 2% of all ou ...
, saying that the site
thefacebook.com
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
was almost complete and that they should discuss marketing strategies.
Two days later, on January 14, 2004,
Zuckerberg met again with the HarvardConnection team; he never mentioned registering the domain name thefacebook.com nor a competing
social networking
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
website, rather he reported progress on HarvardConnection, told them he would continue to work on it, and would email the group later in the week.
On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com, a social network for Harvard students, designed to expand to other schools around the country.
On February 6, 2004, the Winklevosses and Narendra first learned of thefacebook.com while reading a press release in the Harvard student newspaper ''
The Harvard Crimson
''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...
''.
According to Gao, who looked at the HarvardConnection code afterward, Zuckerberg had left the HarvardConnection code incomplete and non-functional, with a registration that did not connect with the back-end connections.
On February 10, 2004, the Winklevosses and Narendra sent Zuckerberg a
cease and desist
A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not dis ...
letter.
They also asked the Harvard administration to act on what they viewed as a violation of the university's honor code and student handbook.
They lodged a complaint with the Harvard Administrative Board and university president
Larry Summers
Lawrence Henry Summers (born November 30, 1954) is an American economist who served as the 71st United States secretary of the treasury from 1999 to 2001 and as director of the National Economic Council from 2009 to 2010. He also served as pres ...
, but both viewed the matter to be outside of the university's jurisdiction.
President Summers advised the HarvardConnection team to take their matter to the courts.
The About section of the ConnectU website included this sentence, which was live on December 4, 2004: "We've cycled through several programmers, even one who stole our ideas to create a competing site, without informing us of his intentions."
Leaked instant messages
Between November 29, 2003 and February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg exchanged a total of 52 emails with the HarvardConnection team and engaged in several in-person meetings.
In this period, Zuckerberg engaged in multiple electronic
instant message
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...
communications with people outside of the HarvardConnection team. On March 5, 2010, certain electronic instant messages from Mark Zuckerberg's
hard drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
were leaked.
On September 20, 2010,
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
confirmed the authenticity of these leaked instant messages in a ''
New Yorker
New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to:
* A resident of the State of New York
** Demographics of New York (state)
* A resident of New York City
** List of people from New York City
* ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925
* ''The New ...
'' article.
The Winklevoss Chang Group
![Connecthi com theyearbook 2005](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Connecthi_com_theyearbook_2005.png)
A partnership allegedly formed between
i2hub
i2hub was a peer-to-peer file sharing service and program designed and intended primarily for use by university and college students.
History
The program was created by Wayne Chang, a student at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
i2hub used ...
, a popular peer-to-peer service at the time, and ConnectU (HarvardConnection). The partnership, called
The Winklevoss Chang Group
i2hub was a peer-to-peer file sharing service and program designed and intended primarily for use by university and college students.
History
The program was created by Wayne Chang, a student at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
i2hub used ...
, jointly advertised their properties through bus advertisements as well as public press releases. i2hub integrated its popular software with ConnectU's website, as part of the partnership. The team also jointly launched several projects and initiatives, including:
* Jungalu.com, an internet-based book exchange
* StallScribbles.com, an online "anonymous confessions" board
* Digital Flyers, a portal for purchasing advertisements to be placed on the various WCG sites and on i2hub
* ConnectHi (also known as ConnectHigh and theyearbook.org), an effort to penetrate the high school social network "scene"
* ConnectGroups, an initiative to provide clubs and organizations with a means for their members to communicate online with each other about their organizations
* The Winklevoss Chang Representative Program, a sales representative program which WCG used to establish a presence on college campuses and to promote ConnectU and the other WCG properties
* The Rep Center, an internet-based portal, accessible through ConnectU.com, providing a centralized location for the representatives of The Winklevoss Chang Representative Program to communicate and earn points (redeemable for prizes) by recruiting and signing up new users for all of WCG's properties
* Social Butterfly, a feature added to ConnectU to allow users to consolidate their accounts at various social networking sites, such as Facebook, and make that information accessible through ConnectU
US Patent Application 20060212395 related to a method of purchasing of copyrighted computer files through affinity programs, such as using points from a credit card to purchase copyrighted movies.
Lawsuits
Facebook lawsuits
In 2004, ConnectU filed a lawsuit against
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
alleging that creator Mark Zuckerberg had breached an oral contract to develop ConnectU and used their source code and idea to create TheFacebook.com.
The suit alleged that Zuckerberg had copied their idea
and illegally used
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...
intended for the website he was hired to create.
Facebook countersued in regard to Social Butterfly, a project put out by The Winklevoss Chang Group. It named among the defendants ConnectU, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, Divya Narendra, and
Wayne Chang
Wayne Chang (born August 3, 1983) is an American entrepreneur, angel investor, film producer, and philanthropist. He is best known for founding Crashlytics, a startup acquired by Twitter in 2013, creating a filesharing network called i2hub, maki ...
, founder of i2hub.
A settlement agreement for both cases was reached in February 2008, reportedly valued at $65 million. This included buying the domain name ConnectU.com and shutting it down.
In May 2010, it was reported that ConnectU was accusing Facebook of securities fraud on the value of the stock that was part of the settlement and wanted to get the settlement undone. According to ConnectU's allegations, the stock was worth $11 million instead of $45 million that Facebook presented at the time of settlement. This meant the settlement value, at the time, was $31 million, instead of the $65 million.
On August 26, 2010, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported that Facebook shares were trading at $76 per share in the secondary market, putting the total settlement value at close to $120 million.
If the lawsuit adjusted the settlement to match the difference, the value would quadruple to over $466 million.
In May 2011, after the Court of Appeals found against the Winklevosses, the twins announced that they would petition the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
to hear the case. In June 2011 the Winklevosses, in a filing with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said that "after careful consideration," they would not file their petition with the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a new filing, the Winklevoss brothers and their business partner Divya Narendra asked the judge to investigate whether Facebook "intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence."
Quinn Emanuel lawsuits
One of ConnectU's law firms,
Quinn Emanuel, disclosed the confidential settlement amount in marketing material by printing "WON $65 million settlement against Facebook".
Quinn Emanuel sought $13 million of the settlement as part of a contingency agreement. ConnectU fired Quinn Emanuel and sued the law firm for malpractice.
On August 25, 2010, an arbitration panel ruled that Quinn Emanuel "earned its full contingency fee". It also found that Quinn Emanuel committed no malpractice.
The Winklevoss Chang Group lawsuit
On December 21, 2009, i2hub founder
Wayne Chang
Wayne Chang (born August 3, 1983) is an American entrepreneur, angel investor, film producer, and philanthropist. He is best known for founding Crashlytics, a startup acquired by Twitter in 2013, creating a filesharing network called i2hub, maki ...
and The i2hub Organization launched a lawsuit against ConnectU and its founders, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, seeking 50% of the settlement. The complaint says "The Winklevosses and Howard Winklevoss filed
patent application, U.S. Patent Application No 20060212395, on or around March 15, 2005, but did not list Chang as a co-inventor."
It also states "Through this litigation, Chang asserts his ownership interest in The Winklevoss Chang Group and ConnectU, including the settlement proceeds."
Lee Gesmer (of law firm Gesmer Updegrove, LLP) posted the 33-page complaint online.
On May 13, 2011, it was reported that Judge Peter Lauriat had made a ruling against the Winklevosses. Chang's case against them could proceed. The Winklevosses argued that the court lacked jurisdiction because the settlement with Facebook had not been distributed and therefore Chang had not suffered any injury. Judge Lauriat wrote, "The flaw in this argument is that defendants appear to conflate loss of the settlement proceed with a loss of rights. Chang alleges that he has received nothing in return for the substantial benefits he provided to ConnectU, including the value of his work, as well as i2hub's users and goodwill." Lauriat also wrote that, although Chang's claims to the settlement are "too speculative to confer standing, his claims with respect to ownership in ConnectU are not. They constitute an injury separate and distinct from his possible share of the settlement proceeds. The court concludes that Chang has pled sufficient facts to confer standing with respect to his claims against the Winklevoss defendants."
On December 24, 2014, summary judgment in favor of the Winklevosses was granted. Chang's suit sought a portion of the settlement via two independent arguments. The first, that he formed a partnership with the Winklevosses, was dismissed based on May 25, 2005, chat where the partnership was dissolved. The second, a memorandum of understanding granting him the option to acquire a fifteen percent stake in ConnectU, was ruled a contract claim against ConnectU, the corporation, not the Winklevosses, former shareholders.
[
]
In popular culture
The story of the relationship between ConnectU and Facebook is depicted in ''
The Social Network
''The Social Network'' is a 2010 American biographical drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2009 book ''The Accidental Billionaires'' by Ben Mezrich. It portrays the founding of social networking web ...
'', a film directed by
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. His films, mostly psychological thrillers and biographical dramas, have received 40 nominations at the Academy Awards, including three for him as Best Director. Fin ...
and written by
Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin (born June 9, 1961) is an American playwright, screenwriter and film director. Born in New York City, he developed a passion for writing at an early age. Sorkin has earned an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, five Primetime E ...
, based on the book ''
The Accidental Billionaires
''The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal'' is a 2009 book by Ben Mezrich about the founding of Facebook, adapted by Aaron Sorkin for the 2010 film ''The Social Network''. Co-founder Eduar ...
'' by
Ben Mezrich
Ben Mezrich ( ; born February 7, 1969) is an American author.
Early life and education
Mezrich was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Molli Newman, a lawyer, and Reuben Mezrich, a chairman of radiology at the University of Maryland Schoo ...
.
References
{{Reflist, colwidth=30em
Defunct social networking services
Internet properties established in 2004
Facebook litigation
2008 mergers and acquisitions