He has said himself that while working on Facebook in the early days, he thought the whole world needed something like it. I believe the college-first approach

He has said himself that while working on Facebook in the early days, he thought the whole world needed something like it. I believe the college-first approach was more of a tactic, but also a somewhat obvious one after his earlier expeditions with "who's hotter?" or whatever. If he had launched "Facebook for the world" from the start, user reaction would see it just like MySpace and ask themselves why? Going with colleges first gave it a feel of exclusivity allowing it to grow the way it did.