
Meta Platforms, Inc.,
[ (file no. 3835815)] also known as
A pseudonym () (originally: ψευδώνυμος in Greek) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym
Onomastics or onomatology is the study ...
Meta
and formerly known as Facebook, Inc., is a multinational technology conglomerate based in
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County
San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county
A county is a geographical region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictiona ...
. The company is the parent organization of
Facebook
Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, an ...

,
Instagram
Instagram is an American photo
396x396px, '' View from the Window at Le Gras'' (1826 or 1827), by Nicéphore Niépce, the earliest known surviving photograph of a real-world scene, made with a camera obscura. Original (left) & Film coloriz ...

, and
WhatsApp
WhatsApp Messenger, or simply WhatsApp, is an American freeware
Freeware is software
Software is a collection of Instruction (computer science), instructions that tell a computer how to work. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, ha ...

, among other subsidiaries. Meta is one of the
world's most valuable companies and is considered one of the
Big Tech
Big Tech, also known as the Tech Giants, the Big Four, and the Big Five, is a name given to the five largest and most dominant companies in the information technology industry of the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. o ...
companies in U.S.
information technology, alongside
Amazon
Amazon usually refers to:
* Amazons
In Greek mythology, the Amazons (Ancient Greek: Ἀμαζόνες ''Amazónes'', singular Ἀμαζών ''Amazōn'') are portrayed in a number of ancient Greek, ancient epic poems and legends, such as the ...
,
Google
Google LLC is an American multinational
Multinational may refer to:
* Multinational corporation, a corporate organization operating in multiple countries
* Multinational force, a military body from multiple countries
* Multinational stat ...

(
Alphabet Inc
Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Mountain View, California. It was created through a restructuring of Google on October 2, 2015, and became the parent company of Google and severa ...
),
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit
In botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this fie ...
, and
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation which produces Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. Its best-know ...

. The company generates a substantial share of its revenue from the sale of advertisement placements to marketers.
Meta products and services include
Facebook
Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, an ...

,
Messenger
Messenger, Messengers, The Messenger or The Messengers may refer to:
People
* Courier
A courier is a company, an employee of that company or a person who delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person ...
,
Facebook Watch
Facebook Watch is an American video on demand, video-on-demand service operated by Meta Platforms (then known as Facebook, Inc.). It was announced on August 9, 2017, with initial availability the next day and with rollout to all U.S. users by the ...

, and
Facebook Portal
Portal (also known as Facebook Portal) is a brand of smart displays
A smart speaker is a type of Loudspeaker, speaker and voice command device with an integrated virtual assistant (artificial intelligence), virtual assistant that offers intera ...
. It has also acquired
Oculus
An oculus (plural oculi, from Latin ', 'eye') is a circular opening in the center of a dome or in a wall. Originating in Ancient history, antiquity, it is a feature of Byzantine architecture, Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture. It is als ...
,
Giphy
Giphy ( ), styled as GIPHY, is an American online database and search engine that allows users to search for and share short looping videos with no sound, that resemble animated GIF files.
History
Beginnings and early history
Giphy was founded ...

, and
Mapillary
Mapillary is a service for sharing crowdsourced
Crowdsourcing is a wikt:sourcing, sourcing model in which individuals or organizations obtain goods and services , goods or services, including ideas, voting, micro-tasks and finances, from a l ...
, and has a 9.99% stake in
Jio Platforms
Jio Platforms is an Indian technology company and a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, headquartered in Mumbai, India. Established in 2019, it acts as a holding company for India's largest mobile network operator Jio and other digital busines ...
.
In October 2021, media outlets reported that the parent company of Facebook planned to change its name to "reflect its focus on building the
metaverse
The Metaverse is a collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the Internet. The word " ...
". It was rebranded as Meta later that month on October 28. The word "
meta
Meta (from the Greek#REDIRECT Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece
Greece ( el, Ελλάδα, , ), officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country located in Southeast Europe. Its population is approxim ...

" comes from the
Greek language
Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek
Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the ...
, meaning "beyond", indicating a futuristic motivation.
History

Facebook filed for an
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering
A public offering is the offering of securities
A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal defi ...
(IPO) on January 1, 2012. The preliminary prospectus stated that the company sought to raise $5 billion, had 845 million monthly active users, and a website accruing 2.7 billion likes and comments daily. After the IPO, Zuckerberg would retain a 22% ownership share in Facebook and would own 57% of the voting shares.
Underwriter
Underwriting (UW) services are provided by some large financial institution
Financial institutions, otherwise known as banking institutions, are corporation
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—a ...
s valued the shares at $38 each, valuing the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly public company. On May 16, one day before the IPO, Facebook announced it would sell 25% more shares than originally planned due to high demand. The IPO raised $16 billion, making it the third-largest in US history (slightly ahead of
AT&T Wireless
AT&T Mobility LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and Trade name, marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States, excluding ...
and behind only
General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational
Multinational may refer to:
* Multinational corporation, a corporate organization operating in multiple countries
* Multinational force, a military body from multiple countries
* Multinat ...

and
Visa
Visa most commonly refers to:
*Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company
** Visa Debit card issued by the above company
** Visa Electron, a debit card
** Visa Plus, an interbank network
*Travel visa, a document that allows ...
). The stock price left the company with a higher
market capitalization
Market capitalization, commonly called market cap, is the market value of a publicly traded company
A public company, publicly traded company, publicly held company, publicly listed company, or public limited company
A public limited compan ...
than all but a few U.S. corporations—surpassing heavyweights such as
Amazon
Amazon usually refers to:
* Amazons
In Greek mythology, the Amazons (Ancient Greek: Ἀμαζόνες ''Amazónes'', singular Ἀμαζών ''Amazōn'') are portrayed in a number of ancient Greek, ancient epic poems and legends, such as the ...
,
McDonald's
McDonald's is an American fast food
Fast food is a type of Mass production, mass-produced food designed for commercial resale and with a strong priority placed on "speed of service" versus other relevant factors involved in food scie ...

,
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly just Disney (), is an American multinational entertainment and media conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California.
Disney was originall ...
, and
Kraft Foods
The second incarnation of Kraft Foods (legal name Kraft Foods Group) is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate
Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to:
* Conglomerate (company)
* Conglomerate (geology)
* Conglomerate ( ...
—and made Zuckerberg's stock worth $19 billion.
Alternate LinkArchived
/ref> ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership. Founded in 1851, the ''Times'' has since won List of Pulitzer Prizes awarded to The New York Times, 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of a ...

'' stated that the offering overcame questions about Facebook's difficulties in attracting advertisers to transform the company into a "must-own stock". Jimmy Lee of JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational
Multinational may refer to:
* Multinational corporation, a corporate organization operating in multiple countries
* Multinational force, a military body from multiple countries
* Multinational ...

described it as "the next great blue-chip".[ Writers at ]TechCrunch
TechCrunch is an American online newspaper
An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the electronic publishing, online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a p ...

, on the other hand, expressed skepticism, stating, "That's a big multiple to live up to, and Facebook will likely need to add bold new revenue streams to justify the mammoth valuation".
Trading in the stock, which began on May 18, was delayed that day due to technical problems with the NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market () is an American stock exchange
A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange
Exchange may refer to:
Places United States
* Exchange, Indiana
Exchange is an Unincorporated area, unincorpora ...
exchange. The stock struggled to stay above the IPO price for most of the day, forcing underwriters to buy back shares to support the price. At closing bell, shares were valued at $38.23, only $0.23 above the IPO price and down $3.82 from the opening bell value. The opening was widely described by the financial press as a disappointment. The stock nonetheless set a new record for trading volume of an IPO. On May 25, 2012, the stock ended its first full week of trading at $31.91, a 16.5% decline.
On May 22, 2012, regulators from Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District
This is a list of financial districts in cities around the world.
Background
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms suc ...

's Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private American corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization
A self-regulatory organization (SRO) is an organization that exercises some degree of regulatory authority over an ...
announced that they had begun to investigate whether banks underwriting Facebook had improperly shared information only with select clients rather than the general public. Massachusetts
Massachusetts (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ...

Secretary of State William Galvin subpoenaed Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank
Investment is the dedication of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effo ...
over the same issue. The allegations sparked "fury" among some investors and led to the immediate filing of several lawsuits, one of them a class action
A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil
Civil may refer to:
*Civic virtue, or civility ...
suit claiming more than $2.5 billion in losses due to the IPO. Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to:
People
* Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer
* Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian
* Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and Ma ...
estimated that retail investor
There are two basic financial market participant categories, Investor
An investor is a person that allocates capital with the expectation of a future financial return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated ca ...
s may have lost approximately $630 million on Facebook stock since its debut.
Standard & Poor's
S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency
A credit rating agency (CRA, also called a ratings service) is a company that assigns credit ratingA credit rating is an evaluat ...

added Facebook to its S&P 500
The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of Decembe ...

index on December 21, 2013.
On May 2, 2014, Zuckerberg announced that the company would be changing its internal motto from "Move fast and break things" to "Move fast with stable infrastructure". The earlier motto had been described as Zuckerberg's "prime directive to his developers and team" in a 2009 interview in ''Business Insider
''Business Insider'' (''BI'' is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publishing house Axel Springer
Axe ...
'', in which he also said, "Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough."
In 2018, Oculus lead Jason Rubin sent his 50-page vision document titled The Metaverse to Facebook's leadership. In the document, Rubin acknowledges that Facebook's virtual reality business didn't catch on as expected, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on content for early adopters. He also urged the company to execute fast and go big on the vision, to shut out HTC, Apple, Google and other competitors in the VR space. Regarding other players' participation in the metaverse vision, he wrote: “Let’s build the Metaverse to keep them from being in the VR business in a meaningful way at all.”
In May 2019, Facebook founded Libra Networks, reportedly to develop their own stablecoin cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a collection of binary data which is designed to work as a medium of exchange
In economics
Economics () is a social science
Social science is the Branches of science, branch of s ...
. In recent developments it has been reported that Libra is being supported by financial companies like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional pape ...

and Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc., commonly known as Uber, is an American mobility as a service
Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is a type of service that through a joint digital channel enables users to plan, book, and pay for multiple types of mobility ...

. The consortium of companies is expected to pool in $10 million each to fund the launch of the cryptocurrency coin named Libra. Depending on when it receives approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory authority to operate as a payments service, the Libra Association plans to launch a limited format cryptocurrency in 2021.
Mergers and acquisitions
Throughout its existence, Facebook, Inc./Meta has acquired multiple companies (often identified as talent acquisition Acqui-hiring or Acq-hiring (a portmanteau
A portmanteau (, ) or portmanteau word (from "portmanteau (luggage)
A portmanteau is a piece of luggage
Baggage or luggage consists of bags, cases, and containers which hold a travel
Travel ...
s).
One of its first major acquisitions was in April 2012, when it acquired Instagram
Instagram is an American photo
396x396px, '' View from the Window at Le Gras'' (1826 or 1827), by Nicéphore Niépce, the earliest known surviving photograph of a real-world scene, made with a camera obscura. Original (left) & Film coloriz ...

for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock.
In October 2013, Facebook, Inc. acquired Onavo, an Israeli mobile web analytics
Mobile web analytics studies the behavior of mobile website visitors in a similar way to traditional web analytics. In a commercial context, mobile web analytics refers to the use of data collected as visitors access a website from a mobile phone. ...
company.
In February 2014, Facebook, Inc. announced it would buy mobile messaging company WhatsApp
WhatsApp Messenger, or simply WhatsApp, is an American freeware
Freeware is software
Software is a collection of Instruction (computer science), instructions that tell a computer how to work. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, ha ...

for US$19 billion in cash and stock. Later that year, Facebook bought Oculus VR
Oculus is a division of Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms, Inc., (file no. 3835815) trade name, also known as Meta and formerly known as Facebook, Inc., is a multinational technology conglomerate based in Menlo Park, California. The company ...
for $2.3 billion in stock and cash, which released its first consumer virtual reality headset in 2016.
In late July 2019, the company announced it was under antitrust
Competition law is a law
Law is a system
A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole.
A system, surrounded and influenced by its environmen ...
investigation by the Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government
Independent agencies of the United States federal government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. gover ...

.
In late November 2019, Facebook, Inc. announced the acquisition of game developer Beat Games, responsible for developing one of the year's most popular VR titles, ''Beat Saber
''Beat Saber'' is a virtual reality rhythm game developed and published by Czech studio Beat Games. It takes place in a surrealistic neon environment and features the player slicing blocks representing musical beats with a pair of contrasting-c ...
''.
In April 2020, Facebook, Inc. announced a $5.7-billion deal with the Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is an Indian multinational
Multinational may refer to:
* Multinational corporation, a corporate organization operating in multiple countries
* Multinational force, a military body from multiple countries
* M ...
to purchase approximately 10 percent of Jio Platforms
Jio Platforms is an Indian technology company and a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, headquartered in Mumbai, India. Established in 2019, it acts as a holding company for India's largest mobile network operator Jio and other digital busines ...
, Reliance's digital media and services entity.
In May 2020, Facebook, Inc. announced it had acquired Giphy
Giphy ( ), styled as GIPHY, is an American online database and search engine that allows users to search for and share short looping videos with no sound, that resemble animated GIF files.
History
Beginnings and early history
Giphy was founded ...

for a reported cash price of $400 million. It will be integrated with the Instagram team. However, in August 2021, UK's stated that Facebook, Inc. might have to sell Giphy, after an investigation found that the deal between the two companies would harm competition in display advertising market. Facebook, Inc. was fined $70 million by CMA for deliberately failing to report all information regarding the acquisition and the ongoing antitrust
Competition law is a law
Law is a system
A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole.
A system, surrounded and influenced by its environmen ...
investigation.
Facebook, Inc. announced in November 2020 that it planned to purchase the customer-service platform and chatbot specialist startup Kustomer to promote companies to use their platform for business. It has been reported that Kustomer valued at slightly over $1 billion.
Lobbying
In 2020, Facebook, Inc. spent on lobbying, hiring 79 lobbyists. In 2019, it had spent on lobbying and had a team of 71 lobbyists, up from and 51 lobbyists in 2018.
Lawsuits
Numerous lawsuits have been filed against the company, both when it was known as Facebook, Inc., and as Meta Platforms.
In March 2020, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
The Australian Information Commissioner is an independent statutory office-holder in Australia, appointed under subsection 14(1) of th''Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010''and operating within the Attorney-General for Australia, Atto ...
(OAIC) sued Facebook, for significant and persistent infringements of the rule on privacy involving the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. Every violation of the Privacy Act is subject to a theoretical cumulative liability of $1.7 million. The OAIC estimated that a total of 311,127 Australians had been exposed.
On December 8, 2020, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government
Independent agencies of the United States federal government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. gover ...

and 46 states (excluding Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and South Dakota), the District of Columbia
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk within the National Mall
The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscape ...
and the territory of Guam
Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia
Micronesia (, ; from grc, μικρός ''mikrós'' "small" and ''nêsos'' "island") is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of thousa ...

, launched '' Federal Trade Commission v. Facebook'' as an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook. The lawsuit concerns Facebook's acquisition of two competitors—Instagram
Instagram is an American photo
396x396px, '' View from the Window at Le Gras'' (1826 or 1827), by Nicéphore Niépce, the earliest known surviving photograph of a real-world scene, made with a camera obscura. Original (left) & Film coloriz ...

and WhatsApp
WhatsApp Messenger, or simply WhatsApp, is an American freeware
Freeware is software
Software is a collection of Instruction (computer science), instructions that tell a computer how to work. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, ha ...

—and the ensuing monopolistic situation. FTC alleges that Facebook holds monopolistic power in the US social networking market and seeks to force the company to divest from Instagram and WhatsApp to break up the conglomerate. William Kovacic
William Evan Kovacic (born 1952) is an American lawyer and legal scholar who was a commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission from 2006 to 2011. Kovacic is a professor at George Washington University Law School and the director of their Compe ...
, a former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, argued the case will be difficult to win as it would require the government to create a counterfactual argument of an internet where the Facebook-WhatsApp-Instagram entity did not exist, and prove that harmed competition or consumers.
On December 24, 2021, a court in Russia fined Meta for $27 million after the company declined to remove unspecified banned content. The fine was reportedly tied to the company's annual revenue in the country.
Rebranding
Following a period of intense scrutiny and damaging whistleblower leaks, news started to emerge on October 21, 2021, about Facebook's plan to rebrand
Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...
the company and to change its name. In the Q3 2021 Earnings Call, on October 25, Mark Zuckerberg discussed the ongoing criticism of the company's social services and the way it operates, and pointed to the pivoting efforts to building the metaverse - without mentioning the rebranding and the name change. The metaverse vision and the name change from Facebook, Inc. to Meta Platforms was introduced at Facebook Connect on October 28, 2021. Based on Facebook's PR campaign, the name change reflects the company's shifting long term focus of building the metaverse, a digital extension of the physical world by social media, virtual reality and augmented reality features.
"Meta" had been as a trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also r ...

in the United States in 2018 (after an initial filing in 2015) for marketing, advertising, and computer services, by a Canadian company that provided big data
Big data is a field that treats ways to analyze, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data set
A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data
Data (; ) are individual facts, statistics, or items of informati ...

analysis of scientific literature
: ''For a broader class of literature, see Academic publishing
Academic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal articles, books or thes ...
. This company had been acquired in 2017 by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is an organization established and owned by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan with an investment of 99 percent of the couple's wealth from their Facebook shares over their lifetime ...

(CZI), a foundation established by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan
Priscilla Chan (born February 24, 1985) is an American philanthropist and a former pediatrician. She and her husband Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American media magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropis ...
, and became one of their projects. Following the Facebook/Meta rebranding announcement, CZI announced that it had already decided to deprioritize the earlier Meta project, that it would be transferring its rights to the name to Meta Platforms, and that the project would be sunset in 2022.
Structure
Management
Meta's key management consists of:
* Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American media magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist
Philanthropy consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life
Quality of life (QOL) is defined ...
, chairman and chief executive officer
* Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Kara Sandberg (born August 28, 1969) is an American business executive, billionaire and philanthropist. Sandberg is the chief operating officer
A chief operating officer (COO), also called a chief operations officer, is one of the highest ...

, Chief Operating Officer
* Mike Schroepfer
Mike Schroepfer is an entrepreneur, technical architect and manager who has been the chief technology officer (CTO) at Meta Platforms since March 2013.
Education
Schroepfer attended Spanish River Community High School in Palm Beach County, Flor ...

, Chief Technology Officer
* David Wehner
David M. Wehner is the chief financial officer (CFO) of Facebook, Inc., Facebook.
Education
Wehner attended Saint Louis Priory School and graduated in 1986. Wehner graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Science, BS in Chemistry, wh ...
, Chief Financial Officer
* Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer
A chief product officer (CPO), sometimes known as head of product, is a corporate title referring to an executive
Executive may refer to:
Role, title, or function
* Executive (government), branch of government that has authority and responsibilit ...
, Meta had 58,604 employees, an increase of 30.4% year-over-year.
Board of directors
As of October 2021, Meta's board
Board or Boards may refer to:
Flat surface
* Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat
** Plank (wood)
** Cutting board
** Sounding board, of a musical instrument
* Cardboard (paper product)
* Paperboard
*Corrugated fiberboard
*Fiberb ...
consisted of the following directors;
* Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American media magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist
Philanthropy consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life
Quality of life (QOL) is defined ...
(chairman, founder and CEO)
* Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Kara Sandberg (born August 28, 1969) is an American business executive, billionaire and philanthropist. Sandberg is the chief operating officer
A chief operating officer (COO), also called a chief operations officer, is one of the highest ...

(executive director and COO)
* Peggy Alford (non-executive director, executive vice president, global sales, PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional pape ...

)
* Marc Andreessen
Marc Lowell Andreessen ( ; born July 9, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic (web browser), Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and genera ...

(non-executive director, co-founder and general partner, Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
Andreessen H ...
)
* Drew Houston
Andrew W. Houston (; born March 4, 1983) is an American Internet entrepreneur, and the co-founder and CEO of Dropbox, an online backup and storage service. According to ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Int ...

(non-executive director, chairman and CEO, Dropbox)
* (non-executive director, senior partner, McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company is a management consulting firm, founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that advises on strategic management to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and large ...
)
* Robert M. Kimmitt (non-executive director, senior international counsel, WilmerHale)
* Peter Thiel
Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American
German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial Germans, German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, Ger ...

(non-executive director, co-founder and former CEO, PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional pape ...

, founder and president, Clarium Capital
Clarium Capital Management LLC is an American investment management and hedge fund company pursuing a global macro strategy. Clarium was founded in San Francisco in 2002 by Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and early investor in Facebook. )
* Tracey Travis (non-executive director, executive vice president, chief financial officer, Estée Lauder Companies
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. ( stylized as ESTĒE LAUDER) is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of prestige skincare, makeup, fragrance and hair care products, based in Midtown Manhattan, New York C ...
)
Company governance
Early Facebook investor and former Zuckerberg mentor Roger McNamee
Roger McNamee (born May 2, 1956) is an American businessman, investor, venture capitalist and musician. He is the founding partner of the venture capital
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity
Private equity (PE) typically refers to ...

described Facebook as having "the most centralized decision-making structure I have ever encountered in a large company." Nathan Schneider
Nathan Schneider (born 1984) is a journalist and author who covers social movements in the United States. Since 2015, he has been a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Writing on religion
Much of Schneider's earl ...
, a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder argued for transforming Facebook into a platform cooperative
A platform cooperative, or platform co-op, is a cooperatively owned, democratically governed business that establishes a computing platform, and uses a website, mobile app or a protocol to facilitate the sale of goods and services. Platform coopera ...
owned and governed by the users.
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has stated that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has too much power, that the company is now a monopoly, and that, as a result, it should be split into multiple smaller companies. In an op-ed
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page" or as a backronym
A backronym, or bacronym, is an acronym formed from a word that existed prior to the invention of the backronym. Unlike a typical acronym, in which a new word is constructed fro ...
in ''The New York Times'', Hughes said he was concerned that Zuckerberg had surrounded himself with a team that did not challenge him, and that it is the U.S. government's job to hold him accountable and curb his "unchecked power." He also said that "Mark's power is unprecedented and un-American." Several U.S. politicians agreed with Hughes. European Union Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager stated that splitting Facebook should be done only as "a remedy of the very last resort", and that it would not solve Facebook's underlying problems.
Revenue
Facebook ranked No. 34 in the 2020 Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck, a chance happening, or that which happens beyond a person's controls
* Wealth, an a ...
list of the largest United States corporations by revenue, with almost $86 billion in revenue. Most comes from advertising. One analysis of 2017 data determined that the company earned per user from advertising.
Number of advertisers
In February 2015, Facebook announced it had reached two million active advertisers, with most of the gain coming from small businesses. An active advertiser was defined as an entity that had advertised on the Facebook platform in the last 28 days. In March 2016, Facebook announced it had reached three million active advertisers with more than 70% from outside the United States. Prices for advertising follow a variable pricing model based on auctioning ad placements, and potential engagement levels of the advertisement itself. Similar to other online advertising platforms like Google and Twitter, targeting of advertisements is one of the chief merits of digital advertising compared to traditional media
Old media, 1900 media, or legacy media, are the mass media
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media (communication), media technology, technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this c ...
. Marketing on Meta is employed through two methods based on the viewing habits, likes and shares, and purchasing data of the audience, namely targeted audiences and "look alike" audiences.
Tax affairs
The US IRS challenged the valuation Facebook used when it transferred IP from the US to Facebook Ireland in 2010 (which Facebook Ireland then revalued higher before charging out), as it was building its double Irish
The Double Irish was a base erosion and profit shifting
Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) refers to corporate tax planning
Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other ...
tax structure. The case is ongoing and Meta faces a potential fine of $3–5bn.
The US Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) is a congressional revenue act of the United States signed into law by President Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician
A politician is a person active in ...
changed Facebook's global tax calculations. Facebook Ireland is subject to the US GILTI tax of 10.5% on global intangible profits (i.e. Irish profits). On the basis that Facebook Ireland is paying some tax, the effective minimum US tax for Facebook Ireland will be circa 11%. In contrast, Meta Inc. would incur a special IP tax rate of 13.125% (the FDII rate) if its Irish business relocated to the US. Tax relief in the US (21% vs. Irish at the GILTI rate) and accelerated capital expensing, would make this effective US rate around 12%.
The insignificance of the US/Irish tax difference was demonstrated when Facebook moved 1.5bn non-EU accounts to the US to limit exposure to GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (EU2016/679(GDPR) is a regulation
Regulation is the management of complex systems
A complex system is a system
A system is a group of interacting
Interaction is a kind of action that occurs ...
.
Facilities
Offices
Users outside of the US and Canada contract with Meta's Irish subsidiary, Facebook Ireland Limited, allowing Meta to avoid US taxes for all users in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and South America. Meta is making use of the Double Irish arrangement
The Double Irish was a base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) corporate tax tool used mostly by US multinationals since the late 1980s to avoid corporate taxation on non-U.S. profits. It was the largest tax avoidance tool in history and by ...
which allows it to pay 2–3% corporation tax on all international revenue. In 2010, Facebook opened its fourth office, in Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of the India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the ...
, India, which houses online advertising and developer support teams and provides support to users and advertisers. In India, Meta is registered as Facebook India Online Services Pvt Ltd. It also has support centers in Chittagong
Chittagong ( ; bn, চাটগাঁও, Cāṭgāon), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is a major coastal city and financial centre
A financial centre, financial center, or financial hub is a location with a c ...
; Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island
upright=1.15, Great_Britain.html"_;"title="Ireland_(left)_and_Great_Britain">Ireland_(left)_and_Great_Britain_ ...

; California
California is a state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* The State (newspaper), ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper i ...

; Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel, the Irish Sea ...

; and Austin, Texas
Austin (, ) is the capital city
A capital or capital city is the municipality holding primary status in a Department (country subdivision), department, country, Constituent state, state, province, or other administrative region, usuall ...

.
Facebook opened its London headquarters in 2017 in Fitzrovia in central London
Central London is the innermost part of London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the ...
. Facebook opened an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area as a major suburb of Boston. , it was the fifth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
in 2018. The offices were initially home to the "Connectivity Lab", a group focused on bringing Internet access to those who do not have access to the Internet.
File:1601californiaavelobby.jpg, Entrance to Facebook's previous headquarters in the Stanford Research Park
Stanford Research Park (SRP) is a technology park
A science park (also called a "university research park", "technology park”, "technopark", “technopole", or a "science and technology park" (STP)) is defined as being a property-based ...
, Palo Alto
Palo Alto (; for "tall stick") is a located in the northwestern corner of , United States, in the . The city is named after a known as .
The city was established by when he founded , following the death of his son, Palo Alto includes port ...

, California
California is a state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* The State (newspaper), ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper i ...

File:Inside the Facebook campus.jpg, Inside the Facebook headquarters in 2014
Data centers
As of 2019, Facebook operated 16 data centers. It committed to purchase 100% renewable energy and to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 75% by 2020. Its data center technologies include Fabric Aggregator, a distributed network system that accommodates larger regions and varied traffic patterns.
Reception
US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative
The United States House of Representatives is the lower house
A lower house is one of ...
responded in a tweet to Zuckerberg's announcement about Meta, saying "Meta as in 'we are a cancer to democracy metastasizing into a global surveillance and propaganda machine for boosting authoritarian regimes and destroying civil society… for profit!'"
Ex-Facebook employee Frances Haugen and whistleblower behind the Facebook Papers responded to the rebranding efforts by expressing doubts about the company's ability to improve while led by Mark Zuckerberg, and urged the CEO to resign.
In November 2021, a video published by Inspired by Iceland went viral, in which a Zuckerberg look-alike promoted the Icelandverse, a place of “enhanced actual reality without silly looking headsets.”
In a 2021 interview, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk (; born June 28, 1971) is an entrepreneur and business magnate
A business magnate is someone who has achieved great success and enormous wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteris ...

said he could not see a compelling use-case for the VR-driven metaverse, adding that ''I don't see someone strapping a frigging screen to their face all day''.
See also
*Big Tech
Big Tech, also known as the Tech Giants, the Big Four, and the Big Five, is a name given to the five largest and most dominant companies in the information technology industry of the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. o ...
*Criticism of Facebook
The criticism of Facebook has led to international media coverage and significant reporting of its legal troubles and the outsize influence it has on the lives and health of its users and employees, as well on its influence on the way media, s ...
*Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal
The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal concerned the obtaining of the personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent by British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, predominantly to be used for Campaign advertising, po ...
* Facebook Files
References
External links
*
*
*
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2004 establishments in Massachusetts
2012 initial public offerings
Companies based in Menlo Park, California
Companies in the PRISM network
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Multinational companies headquartered in the United States
Social media companies of the United States
Technology companies established in 2004
Technology companies of the United States
Virtual reality companies