After Twitter, now Meta announces major job cuts. Nearly 11,000 jobs will be eliminated, which corresponds to 13% of the workforce of Facebook’s parent company.
Posted at 11:41 a.m.
Updated at 11:57 a.m.
From Facebook to Meta
Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while students at Harvard University. Facebook has become an important political tool, especially during the 2008 US elections, when Barack Obama became the 44e President of the United States. However, issues relating to privacy have tarnished the reputation of the social network. In October 2021, Facebook announced the renaming of its parent company to Meta Platforms, which reflects the company’s focus on enabling users to interact with virtual reality environments.
Going public and acquisitions
In February 2012, the company went public. The first call was for $16 billion, bringing the market value to $102.4 billion. In April 2012, Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion. In February 2014, it was WhatsApp’s turn to be acquired by the Mountain View giant.
Scandals
In March 2018, the Cambridge Analytica scandal hit Facebook. Cambridge Analytica worked on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The UK-based company obtained data from more than 87 million users. Then followed the setbacks of Facebook regarding the protection of privacy. Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the US Congress to justify his company’s actions.
Users
Currently, more than two billion users are logged into Facebook on a monthly basis. The number jumps to one billion on a daily basis. The largest pool of users is in India, with over 260 million users. 41% of Facebook users are in Asia, 10% in the United States and Canada, and 16% in Europe. The Facebook social network is available in over 100 languages.
With Britannica, CNN and Quantum Marketer