Meta

Meta Platforms, Inc., doing business as Meta, is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Menlo Park, California, at 1 Hacker Way. It owns and operates social media and communication services including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads, and runs an advertising network across its own properties and third-party sites. The company was incorporated in 2004 as TheFacebook, Inc., renamed Facebook, Inc. in 2005, and renamed Meta Platforms, Inc. in October 2021 to reflect a strategic shift toward the metaverse and virtual and augmented reality technologies.

Meta reports through two segments. Family of Apps covers Facebook (feed, reels, stories, groups, marketplace), Instagram, Messenger, Threads, WhatsApp and Meta AI, an assistant available inside its apps, as a standalone app, on AI glasses and on the web. Reality Labs covers virtual and augmented reality consumer hardware, software and content, including Meta Quest headsets such as Quest 3 and Quest 3S, and wearables such as Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta AI glasses, the Meta Ray-Ban Display, and the Meta Neural Band, a wrist-worn electromyography device for controlling AI glasses through neuromuscular signals. Other divisions include Mapillary and Superintelligence Labs, alongside AI research work.

The company is a serial acquirer, having bought 91 companies; most deals have been talent acquisitions with acquired products often shut down, while notable product-driven purchases include Instagram (announced April 2012, $1 billion), WhatsApp ($16–19 billion) and Oculus VR ($2 billion). Meta is described as one of the largest U.S. technology companies by market capitalization and was ranked 31st on the 2023 Forbes Global 2000.

Founding story

Facebook was founded on February 4, 2004 in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Mark Zuckerberg with college roommates Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes, originally incorporated as TheFacebook, Inc.

Business model

Meta states that its business model is advertising, which allows its services to be offered free to users; advertising accounted for 97.8% of total revenue as of 2023. Family of Apps monetizes billions of users through ad placements across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp and through business tools, while Reality Labs sells consumer VR/AR hardware, wearables, software and content.

Predominantly advertising revenue sold against its social and messaging apps, supplemented by hardware and content sales in the Reality Labs segment. Reported 2025 revenue was $201 billion with operating income of $83.3 billion and net income of $60.5 billion.

Traction

As of 2026 Meta reported 75,472 full-time employees and 2025 revenue of $201 billion, total assets of $366 billion and total equity of $217 billion. Its platforms collectively reach over 3 billion monthly active users.

Latest developments

In 2026 Meta raised its capital expenditure forecast for the year by $10 billion to a $125–145 billion range, raised $25 billion in a six-part investment-grade bond sale that drew $96 billion of orders, and raised roughly $30 billion through off-balance-sheet financing tied to a special purpose vehicle associated with Blue Owl Capital, together exceeding $55 billion of new AI-related financing in six months. Its shares fell as much as 9.5% on the spending news. The metaverse division has been scaled back and workforce reductions of 20% or more were being prepared, with a first round expected on May 20, 2026. Meta also reached a settlement of up to roughly $16.7–18 billion over youth safety claims, including new protections and platform limits for under-18 users, and an Oklo agreement covering a 1.2-gigawatt reactor in Ohio was reported.