Meta
Introduction
- Meta builds technologies that help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology.
History Of Facebook
- Facebook is a social networking service originally launched as FaceMash on October 28, 2003, before changing its name to The Facebook on February 4, 2004. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and college roommates and fellow Harvard University students, in particular Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. 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 gradually most universities in the United States and Canada, corporations, and by September 2006, to everyone with a valid email address along with an age requirement of being 13 and older.
Name Changing
Following a period of intense scrutiny and damaging whistleblower leaks, news started to emerge on October 21, 2021, about Facebook’s plan to rebrand 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 were 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.
In an interview with News Scientist, Taina Bucher- an assistant professor at the University of Oslo, Norway and the author of the book Facebook said,
“All the bad press and political battles it is currently fighting have to do with its social networking products, so launching something entirely new – in their minds – is a way to completely rebrand and start fresh, without changing much with the existing problematic products”.
Name Signify
The name is inspired by the Greek word ‘μετ?’ that means beyond or transcending. Mr. Mark Zuckerberg believes that this symbolizes that there is always more that can be built or created. The name reflects the company’s ambitions beyond social media and becoming a strong player in the ‘metaverse’. In an interview, he mentions:
“Today, we are seen as a social media company, but in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people, and the Metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started”.
The term “Metaverse” was first coined in 1992 by Mr. Neal Stephenson in his sci-fi novel “Snow Crash”. In the book, humans interact with each other through their avatars in a 3D virtual world. Similar to what Mr. Mark Zuckerberg said, Mr. Neal Stephenson had mentioned in the book then that the ‘Metaverse’ would be the successor of the internet.
Rebranding
With Meta, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg envisions taking the company beyond social media; into becoming a platform that is a dominant player in the Metaverse that is quoted as the ‘future of the internet. In his speech delivered at the company’s annual Connect conference, he said:
“Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future. Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and identity on what we’re building toward.”
“Meta” had been registered as a trademark 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 analysis of scientific literature. This company had been acquired in 2017 by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), a foundation established by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, 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.
Metaverse
In simple words, Metaverse is a virtual world, a concept for a 3D version of the world that companies are trying to create. In this world, the people would interact with each other through their avatars, an animation of themselves in the virtual world. The virtual world would be much like the real world we live in today; we would not just interact with each other but do pretty much everything we do in the real world. It is like the internet of the future.
Just like how the internet isn’t owned by any particular company but has become the foundation on which the companies like Google and Facebook are built, the Metaverse will not be owned by a particular company, but the companies and apps would make products to enhance our experience in that world.
About This Vision By Mark
- The metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together — and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world. It’s the next evolution in a long line of social technologies, and it’s ushering in a new chapter for our company. Mark shared more about this vision in a founder’s letter.
Acquisitions
In August 2009, Facebook acquired social media real-time news aggregator FriendFeed, a startup created by Gmail’s first engineer Paul Buchheit.
In February 2010, Facebook acquired Malaysian contact-importing startup Octazen Solutions. On April 2, 2010, Facebook announced the acquisition of a photo-sharing service called Divvyshot for an undisclosed amount. In June 2010, an online marketplace for trading private Facebook stock reflected a valuation of $11.5 billion.
On April 12, 2012, Facebook acquired the photo-sharing service Instagram for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock.
On March 8, 2013, Facebook announced that they acquired the team from Storyline, but not the product itself. On October 13, 2013, Facebook acquired Onavo, an Israeli analytics company, for approximately $120 million.
On February 19, 2014, Facebook announced its acquisition of WhatsApp, a smartphone instant messaging application for $19 billion in a mix of stock and cash. The acquisition is the most ever paid for a venture-capital-backed startup.
On March 25, 2014, Facebook announced they had acquired virtual reality startup Oculus VR for $2 billion in cash and stock.
In April 2020, Facebook, Inc. bought a 9.9% stake in Jio, which was the highest foreign direct investment in the Indian technology sector.
Motto Of Meta
- 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, in which he also said, “Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.”
Company Governance
Early Facebook investor and former Zuckerberg mentor Roger McNamee described Facebook as having “the most centralized decision-making structure I have ever encountered in a large company.” Nathan Schneider, a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder argued for transforming Facebook into a platform cooperative 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 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 Of Meta
According to Meta (Facebook)’s latest financial reports, the company’s current revenue (TTM) is $109.48 B. In 2020 the company made a revenue of $84.17 B an increase over the years 2019 revenue that was of $69.65 B. The revenue is the total amount of income that a company generates by the sale of goods or services.
The spending dragged down Meta’s quarterly profits, which fell 8% to $10.3 billion in the three months ended in December from a year earlier, even as revenue rose 20% to $33.7 billion over the same period. Wall Street analysts had predicted a profit of $10.9 billion on revenue of $33.4 billion.
Product Of Meta
Meta Platforms, Inc., doing business as Meta and formerly known as Facebook, Inc., is an American multinational technology conglomerate based in Menlo Park, California. The company is the parent organization of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, among other subsidiaries. Meta is one of the world’s most valuable companies. It is one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft.
Meta products and services include Facebook, Messenger, Facebook Watch, and Facebook Portal. It has also acquired Oculus, Giphy, and Mapillary, and has a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms. The company generates a substantial share of its revenue from the sale of advertisement placements to marketers.
Awards Of Meta
- Meta won 7 awards in 2021 and 9 awards in 2020. In 2021, Meta won for Best Company Perks & Benefits, Best Company Compensation, Best Product & Design Team 2021, Best Engineering Team 2021, Best Places to Work in the Bay Area 2021, Best Global Culture 2021, and Best Company Outlook 2021.
Movie About Facebook
- The Social Network is a 2010 American biographical drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, it portrays the founding of the social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits. It stars Jesse Eisenberg as founder Mark Zuckerberg, along with Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin, Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker, Armie Hammer as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Max Minghella as Divya Narendra. Neither Zuckerberg nor any other Facebook staff was involved with the project, although Saverin was a consultant for Mezrich’s book.
Controversy On Meta
A Chicago-based tech firm called Meta Company is going to court against Facebook, alleging that the social network stole its name and “livelihood” after it rebranded its name to Meta. In a statement, Meta Company Founder Nate Skulic alleged that when Facebook failed to buy them, it aimed to “bury” the company by force of media.
Whistle Blowing Troubles
This has to e the biggest crisis Facebook has seen since the Cambridge Analytical data scandal in 2018. Over the past month or so the social networking site has been heavily criticized as documents leaked to the US Securities and Exchange Commission suggest that the firm was aware of the negative impact caused by its product.
A former lead product manager on its civic misinformation team, Frances Haugen revealed herself to be the whistleblower behind the leak of documents. The company had to pause development on Instagram Kids amid the controversy. Data leaked also showed the negative impact Instagram had on Children, especially pre-teens, with the company doing next to nothing to stem such content or even filter it.
Organizational Chart Of Meta
People Holding Key Positions In Meta
1. Mark Zuckerberg:
- Mark Zuckerberg is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Meta, which he originally founded as Facebook in 2004. Mark is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company. He leads the design of Meta’s services and the development of its core technology and infrastructure. Mark studied computer science at Harvard University before moving the company to Palo Alto, California.
2. Sheryl Sandberg:
Sheryl Sandberg is a chief operating officer at Meta, overseeing the firm’s business operations. She also serves on Meta’s board of directors. Prior to joining the company then called Facebook, Sheryl was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, chief of staff for the United States Treasury Department under President Clinton, a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, and an economist with the World Bank.
Sheryl received a BA summa cum laude from Harvard University and an MBA with the highest distinction from Harvard Business School.
3. Dave Wehner:
- Dave Wehner is the chief financial officer of Meta, where he leads the finance, facilities, and information technology teams. Prior to becoming CFO in June 2014, Dave served as the company’s vice president of Corporate Finance and Business Planning. Dave holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Georgetown University and an M.S. in Applied Physics from Stanford University.
4. Mike Schroepfer:
- Mike Schroepfer is chief technology officer at Meta, formerly Facebook. In that role, he leads the development of the technology strategies and teams that enable Meta to connect billions of people around the world and make significant breakthroughs in fields like artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Mike holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University and has filed two US patents.
5. Chris Cox:
- Chris Cox is chief product officer at Meta, leading its apps and technologies. After earning his bachelor’s degree in symbolic systems from Stanford University in 2004, Chris joined Meta, then called Facebook, in 2005 as a software engineer and helped build the first versions of key Facebook features, including News Feed. He then became director of human resources, setting the tone for the company’s culture.
6. Marne Levine:
Marne Levine is a chief business officer at Meta, formerly Facebook, overseeing the company’s an advertising and business partnerships. Previously, Marne was the VP of Global Partnerships, Business & Corporate Development; COO of Instagram; and before that, VP of Global Policy.
Marne holds a BA in political science and communications from Miami University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
7. Jennifer Newstead:
- Jennifer G. Newstead is a chief legal officer of Meta, formerly Facebook, where she oversees all legal matters, including corporate governance and securities compliance, regulatory oversight, litigation, intellectual property, and commercial matters. She holds an AB from Harvard University and a JD from Yale Law School.
Top 13 Interesting Facts About Meta
The logo chosen for Meta is the infinity loop that symbolizes endless possibilities and an endless universe.
Facebook ranked No. 34 in the 2020 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue, with almost $86 billion in revenue.
One analysis of 2017 data determined that the company earned US$20.21 per user from advertising.
As of December 2020, Meta had 58,604 employees, an increase of 30.4% year-over-year
In 2020, Facebook, Inc. spent $19.7 million on lobbying, hiring 79 lobbyists. In 2019, it had spent $16.7 million on lobbying and had a team of 71 lobbyists, up from $12.6 million and 51 lobbyists in 2018.
In the summer of 2004, venture capitalist Peter Thiel made a $500,001 angel investment in the social network Facebook for 10.2% of the company and joined Facebook’s board. This was the first outside investment in Facebook
On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion.
Meta spent $10 billion on the metaverse in 2021, dragging down profit.
Meta Company has an overall rating of 3.5 out of 5, based on over 41 reviews left anonymously by employees. 56% of employees would recommend working at Meta Company to a friend and 51% have a positive outlook for the business.
The company’s name has been changed to ‘Meta’, but the apps owned by them, including Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp will retain their names. The Oculus Quest app will be renamed to ‘Meta Quest’.
Meta will lose about $10 billion in revenue in 2022 due to Apple’s new privacy policy.
Meta Platforms Inc, formerly known as Facebook, said on Wednesday it would ban all Myanmar-military-controlled businesses from having a presence on its platforms in an expansion of its earlier curbs on the country’s security forces.
Meta Benefits include Paid Holidays, Vision Insurance, and Dental Insurance, along with 12 other unique benefits in categories such as Financial Benefits and Paid Time Off. Employees score their Perks and Benefits an average of 86/100.
Some FAQs Or Also Ask Question
What do you mean by Meta?
Meta means beyond or transcending. . Mr. Mark Zuckerberg believes that this symbolizes that there is always more that can be built or created. Metaverse is a virtual world.
What is Meta in WhatsApp and Instagram?
Meta is the parent organization of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
How do you use Meta?
Meta Platforms, Inc., doing business as Meta and formerly known as Facebook, It is one of the Big Five American information technology companies.
What are metaverse and their products?
Meta products and services include Facebook, Messenger, Facebook Watch, and Facebook Portal. It has also acquired Oculus, Giphy, and Mapillary, and has a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms.
What does the Meta symbol mean?
The logo chosen for Meta is the infinity loop that symbolizes endless possibilities and endless universe.
