Who Owns Facebook? An In-Depth Look At The Social Media Giant‘s Ownership And History

With close to 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook is undoubtedly one of the world‘s most influential companies. But have you ever wondered exactly who owns and controls this social media behemoth?

In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll take a deep dive into the founding, ownership structure, major shareholders and future outlook of Facebook.

The Founding of Facebook

To understand who owns Facebook, you first need to understand how it was created. Facebook began as a student project in 2004 when Mark Zuckerberg was studying psychology and computer science at Harvard University.

As the story goes, Zuckerberg created an early version of Facebook called Facemash – which allowed users to compare Harvard students‘ attractiveness side-by-side – as a rebellion against breaking up with his girlfriend at the time.

Though Facemash was quickly taken down by Harvard admins, it gave Zuckerberg a preview of the vast potential in building a real student social network. He partnered up with classmates Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes to launch "thefacebook" from their dorm room in February 2004.

Originally designed only for Harvard students, thefacebook started at one college but spread rapidly across US campuses. The founding team took the site live to the general public in 2006, shortened the name to Facebook, and history was made.

Facebook‘s Rapid Growth

In many ways, the growth of Facebook mirrors classic Silicon Valley startup lore: young college dropout has brilliant idea, builds company in dorm room, overcomes early setbacks, eventually achieves massive success beyond wildest dreams.

And "massive success" might be an understatement here. Consider Facebook‘s key milestones:

2004 – Launches as student-only network called "thefacebook", founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Harvard classmates
2006 – Opens to everyone over age 13 with a valid email address
2007 – Launches Facebook Platform to enable developers to build apps
2008 – Reaches 100 million active users
2009 – Introduces features like Like button and Facebook Connect
2010 – Movie "The Social Network" releases about Facebook‘s founding
2012 – Raises $16 billion in biggest tech IPO to date
2014 – Acquires WhatsApp for $19 billion and Oculus for $2 billion
2018 – Implicated in Cambridge Analytica user data scandal
2021 – Company renamed to Meta as focus shifts to metaverse
Today – Used by nearly 3 billion people globally

In less than two decades, Facebook has become one of the world‘s most valuable companies that‘s essentially embedded into the fabric of everyday modern communication.

But who exactly owns this massively influential social juggernaut?

Who Are Facebook‘s Major Shareholders?

Facebook has been a publicly traded company since its record-shattering 2012 IPO. However, founder Mark Zuckerberg has retained significant ownership in several ways:

Mark Zuckerberg – CEO and Controlling Shareholder

As the founder and CEO of Facebook since the beginning, Mark Zuckerberg is far and away the company’s largest individual shareholder.

He owns 13% of all Facebook shares outstanding
He holds 53% of voting shares in the company
His net worth is estimated at $125 billion, making him the 7th richest person alive

By maintaining ownership of most voting shares, Zuckerberg stays firmly in control of decision making – a setup similar to founders of other tech giants like Jeff Bezos and Larry Page.

Regulatory filings show that Zuckerberg has sold over $36 billion worth of Facebook shares over the years. Yet he still owns more of the company than any other insider or institution.

Eduardo Saverin – Co-Founder

Saverin was an early investor who bankrolled Facebook’s initial costs and infrastructure. He owned a 35% stake in the company at launch and his name was on the masthead as co-founder.

However, Zuckerberg steadily diluted Saverin‘s shares as more investors came on board. After a messy legal dispute that inspired key scenes in “The Social Network”, Saverin walked away with a 2% stake and severed ties with Facebook leadership.

Institutional Investors

Aside from Zuckerberg, over 95% of Facebook shares are owned by institutional investors – which essentially encompasses banks, hedge funds, mutual funds and other large corporations.

Here is the breakdown of the largest institutional holders:

The Vanguard Group – 7%
Fidelity – 4.3%
BlackRock – 3.6%
T. Rowe Price – 2.7%
Capital Research & Management – 2.1%

These percentages include massive Facebook shareholdings in popular mutual fund portfolios from Vanguard, Fidelity and others.

In total, institutional ownership accounts for billions of dollars worth of Facebook stock. But Mark Zuckerberg remains both the majority owner and final decision-maker at the company.

Facebook‘s Company Structure and Acquisitions

Facebook‘s corporate structure has evolved rapidly as the company has grown. Originally incorporated as a private company in 2004, Facebook Inc. held its record-setting $16 billion public offering in 2012.

Then in late 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook, Inc was rebranding itself into Meta Platforms, Inc. This restructuring was meant to capture the company‘s shifting focus into developing the metaverse and shared virtual environments.

Today, Meta Platforms encompasses Facebook‘s “Family of Apps” which includes:

Facebook – Core social media platform
Instagram – Popular photo/video sharing network
Messenger – Messaging app with 1.3 billion users
WhatsApp – Encrypted messaging preferred internationally

Meta also oversees Facebook Reality Labs, which is responsible for metaverse-oriented projects and hardware like Oculus virtual reality headsets.

It’s worth noting that Facebook owns hugely popular apps like Instagram and WhatsApp outright – we’ll explore these acquisitions next.

Notable Facebook Acquisitions

Aside from impressive organic growth, Facebook has expanded its empire by acquiring competitors and complementary technologies worth billions.

Here‘s a rundown of Facebook’s priciest acquisitions since launch:

Instagram – Bought in 2012 for $1 billion. Instagram has become ubiquitous for sharing visual stories and now boasts over 2 billion monthly active accounts.

WhatsApp – The encrypted messaging app was purchased in 2014 for over $19 billion in cash and stock. WhatsApp now has 2 billion+ users, with popularity especially high across Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Oculus – Facebook paid $2 billion to acquire Oculus VR and its lineup of virtual reality headsets back in 2014, laying groundwork for its metaverse ambitions.

In total, Facebook has made over 90 acquisitions – incorporating technologies from face recognition to artificial intelligence under its parent company umbrella.

Zuckerberg’s approach here echoes industry moguls like Google’s Larry Page: expand the corporate domain by bringing rising technologies into the fold.

By the Numbers: Facebook‘s Money and Reach

Facebook generate billions in profits from targeted ads shown to hundreds of millions of eyeballs daily. Some key stats on the company’s money and user reach includes:

Total Users: 2.96 billion monthly active users across Facebook‘s apps as of Q4 2022
Revenue: Generated $118 billion in revenue in 2021, 98% from advertising
Net Income: $39.4 billion in 2021 profits – a 35% profit margin
Market Cap: Over $1.1 trillion; 7th biggest public company in the world
Advertising: Millions of businesses pay Facebook to advertise to targeted user segments
Employees: Over 83,000 as of 2022

For a company that’s less than 20 years old, these financial figures and user metrics are simply staggering.

Facebook‘s income statements continue setting records annually. It joins the exclusive $1 trillion club as one of the highest valued companies on the planet.

And the platform keeps evolving in response to upstart competitors aiming to siphon off users – especially among coveted youth demographics.

Which raises the question…what does the future hold for Facebook and social media at large?

The Future: Facebook‘s Vision for the Metaverse Era

Back in 2021, Mark Zuckerberg introduced the biggest change in Facebook‘s history by announcing the corporate rebrand to Meta Platforms.

This move signals Zuckerberg‘s long-term ambition to evolve social networking beyond the constraints of screens into immersive experiences blending the physical and digital worlds.

At the center of this vision is the idea of a metaverse: permanent 3D virtual spaces where users can work, play, socialize and transact virtually as digital avatars.

The building blocks for Meta’s metaverse already exist within technologies they are developing:

Augmented reality – Enhancing physical environments with interactive digital content
Virtual reality – Fully immersive digital worlds accessible via headsets
Brain interfaces – Direct linkage between computing devices and neural activity

Meta is investing $10 billion+ annually into metaverse research, seeking to bring intuitive and interoperable virtual experiences to the masses.

They are essentially trying to construct the next major computing platform and ensure Facebook stays relevant in the Web 3.0 era.

Acquisitions like Oculus and soft launches of collaborative platforms like Workrooms signal how Meta seeks to own the future of digital interaction.

Yet a fully-fledged metaverse could be years away from mainstream viability. Until then, Facebook the social media empire will continue battling lawmakers over misinformation and regulators over perceived anti-competitive business tactics as it rakes in advertising dollars.

The Controversies and Criticisms Facing Facebook

It’s impossible to separate Facebook’s incredible success from consistent controversies challenging the faith users place in the platform.

By centralizing the data and connections of billions, Facebook inherits blame for the spread of misinformation, invasions of privacy, enabling emotional manipulation at scale, perpetuating filter bubbles and addictive screen times.

Lawmakers across the political spectrum frequently grill Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook‘s political influence and effects on societies. Civil rights audits concluded that Facebook empowers divisiveness and severely threatens democracy if not reigned in.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018 shocked the public regarding just how much of their personal data Facebook possessed and sold, prompting the #DeleteFacebook movement.

Research now links social media usage with depression and self-image issues, especially in teens. Governments accuse Facebook‘s algorithms of strengthening partisan tribalism and allowing extremist groups to organize.

And the core Facebook experience itself seems stale compared to multimedia upstarts like TikTok. With young users flocking elsewhere, can Meta rebrand fast enough for the metaverse age?

Mark Zuckerberg retains near total authority to set strategy internally. But external pressures continue mounting to limit the corporation‘s power over discourse.

Without sustained moral leadership or governance reform internally, it seems likely that external regulation, antitrust laws aimed at interoperability or simple mass abandonment could dethrone Facebook‘s dominance in the coming years.

Conclusion: Decentralization May Be the Future

Mark Zuckerberg maintains operational control and majority voting rights over Facebook through his founder’s shares. While the CEO has sold billions personally, as long as he retains majority voting rights, he stays firmly in charge of the tech empire.

After studying Facebook’s origins story and meteoric rise to becoming a trillion dollar titan, one thing is clear…no other company bears so much impact on global communication nor raises so much controversy today.

As the metaverse vision expands scope, perhaps decentralized alternatives built on blockchain offer a way to retain social networking’s connective powers while curbing the domination of centralized corporate gatekeepers over discourse and data.

The next generation of the internet brings possibility to empower users through securing property rights, preventing unauthorized surveillance capitalism and literally keeping friends closer through spatial computing.

With Facebook’s founding ethos rooted in open connectivity, perhaps Meta’s old empire gives way to new community-owned networks enabling the highest expression of what shared social spaces promise. The figures may shift, but the essence of gathering in common spaces endures.