ReactJS History - Evolution Over The Years

Welcome to another article on React. What will you get here? A fun tour of ReactJS history through the years. Stay tuned.

In February 2004, a psychology student of Harvard (and a programming geek!) Mark Zuckerberg launched Thefacebook. This local networking platform evolved into the Facebook we know today. The fact that Mark Zuckerberg was a psychology student explains a lot about the addictive nature of Facebook.

Zuckerburg designed this social media platform to attain and retain users. This is the reason why its users grew exponentially after the global launch in 2006. By the year 2011, the number of Facebook users reached 845 million!

Interesting fact: Zuckerberg is a college dropout! Yes - he left Harvard to focus on his social media platform. However, he received his honorary degree from Harvard 12 years after quitting!

With big achievements, come bigger challenges. Facebook made sure that its users remain engaged by introducing new and addictive features regularly. As features grew, the challenges for the developers also increased. 

They started facing issues with code maintenance and cascading updates. These issues led to the birth of ReactJS - one of the most powerful javascript libraries. So what’s ReactJs and why am I calling it a powerful javascript library? Let's explore the answers in ReactJS history.

ReactJS Fundamentals

Before going through the ReactJS history, first, let us have an overview of the what, whys, and hows of this javascript library.

Last week, InvoZone’s content writing team wrote some amazing articles on React. We have covered all the fundamentals associated with ReactJS in the following blog posts: 

• An introduction to React programming language, where you’ll learn the origin, benefits, and future of React technology.
• What are the Reasons contributing to React’s Popularity? , where the author has decoded the reasons behind the popularity of React development.
• Key Benefits of Choosing React Native for your Next Project, where you’ll learn all about the awesome React Native framework.
• How to Find and Hire Top ReactJs Developers? Don’t forget to check out this article. It will guide you in hiring React developers and selecting the right React development company.

The ReactJS History - the Timeline:

(2010) The Inception

The Facebook programmers realized the need for a fast and efficient app development JS library. Hence, they introduced xhp, which allowed the creation of composite components. This xhp syntax was used later in React.

(2011) The Birth

Now is the right time to name the inventor of ReactJS - Jordan Walke. He was the software engineer for Facebook. Jordan realized the need for a ReactJS javascript library. The first version was named FAXJS.

Interesting fact: Jordan has left Facebook at the start of 2021! Here is the screenshot of his tweet:

(2012) React for Insta

In 2012, Facebook acquired Insta. Consequently, ReactJS became the innovation that Instagram needed (tech-wise, obviously!). This led to… wait for it…

The public release of React in the next year!

(2013) The Public Release

Facebook publicly open-sourced ReactJS in May 2013. Initially, people were skeptical about the library. However, with time ReactJS has become one of the favorite app development tech stacks for developers.  

(2014) The Expansion and Adoption

Gradually, React gained stability and acknowledgment among the bigger community.  Large enterprises started to take notice of the language. The Reactjs World Tour conference also started this year.

(2015) The Native Platform

In 2015, Jordan Walke introduced a powerful React Native framework in public. This framework revolutionized app development in the true sense. Also, large enterprises like Netflix and Airbnb adopted React.

(2016)  The Global Acknowledgments

In 2016, React gained more recognition with new conferences (such as React Europe). The new libraries such as MobX and BlueprintJS were released which were highly appreciated by the developing communities. 

(2017-2018) Bigger and Better

The React tools were updated and improved. Subsequently, we saw new releases of the library, and worldwide conferences were held.

(2019) The New React DevTools

The year 2019 saw the launch of the novel React DevTools.

(2020) Zero-Bundle-Size React Server Components

In 2020, they introduced zero-bundle-size React server components for initial feedback from the React development community.

Top ReactJS Use Cases

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Netflix
• Airbnb
• Yahoo Mail
• Khan Academy
• Discord
• WhatsApp

2021 And Beyond

In this article, we saw ReactJS history on a timeline.  It is a powerful library that’s here to stay, and it will be used to build apps that will rule the world - just like Facebook, Instagram, and Netflix. We are seeing great things to come in the future! Do you want to build a groundbreaking ReactJS app? So what are you waiting for? Contact us, right now!