Facebook, an American online social media and social networking service, was founded in the early 2000s. A few years later, the company gained worldwide popularity and Facebook became a household name.

Today, many young entrepreneurs want to be like Mark Zuckerberg, the founding father of Facebook, striving to achieve remarkable results. Indeed, for some fifteen years, Facebook has become a global communication platform, a symbol of success and endless opportunities, as well as an example of a thriving startup for enterprising geniuses.

However, the Facebook era suddenly ended in October 2021. Zuckerberg's popular social network is still running well, but the company it belongs to is no longer called Facebook. After a large rebranding, the first brainchild of the media mogul became Meta Platforms.

So, let’s find out how extensive changes have affected the company’s image and the price of its stock. Perhaps it is time for you to become a small part of Zuckerberg's infinite metaverse.

About Facebook

The history of Facebook goes back to 2003 when Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg hacked into the Harvard University student database to create his Facemash program. The quick-witted student did all this solely for the sake of fun. However, other students were outraged and demanded that the university remove Zuckerberg’s website from the Internet.

However, it did not stop Zuckerberg and he began to upgrade Facemash.

Consequently, TheFacebook was launched in 2004. In a few weeks, most Harvard students already had an account with the social networking service. Soon, news of TheFacebook reached Yale, Columbia, and Stanford, whose students also joined the platform.

So, Zuckerberg invited several Harvard friends to discuss a business opportunity, and the team moved to their first office in Palo Alto shortly.

Later, Peter Thiel, the former CEO of PayPal, decided to invest about 450,000 euros in the Facebook project.

In 2006, the social network launched a news feed. Facebook’s useful innovation attracted a huge number of new users. Four years later, the IT giant had more than a billion active users.

In 2007, Microsoft took a $240 million stake in Facebook.

In 2012, the company was worth $5 billion.

In 2015, Facebook had a user network of 1.5 billion. By 2017, the company turned into the most popular social medial platform, with a monthly audience of about 2 billion users.

In April 2021, it was reported that Facebook suffered the largest personal data breach to date due to a hacker attack. In October, massive social media disruptions triggered a fall in the value of the company’s stock.

Rebranding

On October 28, 2021, Facebook changed its name to Meta Platforms, Inc (Meta) as part of a major rebrand. Meanwhile, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc., became subsidiaries of the Meta holding. The company’s stock swelled 3% (about $20) instantly in the wake of unexpected news from Zuckerberg.

Facebook is believed to change its name due to numerous scandals associated with the social media giant: global disruptions caused by social media outrage, security problems, internal documents leaked by former employees, etc. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg says he wants to build a metaverse by bringing together its apps and technologies under one new company brand.

So, Meta is divided into two operating segments: Family of Apps and Reality Labs. Reality Lab is tasked with researching technologies that the company believes could help create digital space where users could spend most of their time: work, communicate, shop, and even attend concerts. By the way, Meta users will not need Facebook to interact with other services of the company.

Mark Zuckerberg says it will take his team at least 5-10 years to implement the project. So, users will see the first results of the mass rebrand in 2025-2030.

Nowadays, Meta Platforms is one of the leading information technology companies in the United States. The bulk of Meta's revenue comes from selling advertising spaces and developing augmented reality and virtual reality technologies.

Stock

Facebook held its first initial public offering (IPO) in the spring of 2012. The firm listed its stock on NASDAQ under the ticker* FB. Facebook priced its IPO at $38 a share and raised $16 billion. Its IPO became the largest among technology companies.

Since Meta appeared as a result of the rebranding of Facebook, an additional IPO of its stock was not needed.

To invest in Meta Platforms, you should register an account with a brokerage company that has access to global stock exchanges, including NASDAQ. Thus, it will take you just 3 minutes to open an account with InstaForex.

The minimum trade size is 1 lot, which equals 1 share of the company. To calculate your profit, you can use Trader’s Calculator on the InstaForex website.

Then, feel free to start trading Meta stock or shares of any other popular company. The MT4 trading platform from InstaForex, favored by all traders, will become your ideal tool for trading.

*Ticker is an abbreviation of trading instruments quoted on the exchange

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge positive impact on Meta stocks. Since March 2020, when the WHO declared the pandemic, the social media giant’s stock swelled 153.52%.

Dividends

Facebook, now Meta, does not pay dividends to its stockholders. From the beginning, the company’s management team announced it preferred to invest the revenue to acquire other firms to improve its online business.

So, Meta stockholders can only profit from changes in the value of the IT giant's shares on the stock market. Experts suggest that the management team may decide to pay dividends in the future to stir up interest in Meta.

Factors affecting Meta quotes

Before you choose to invest in Meta, it is important that you fully understand the company’s current state and its prospects for growth*.

So, if you prefer to trade based on mid-term and long-term strategies, you should focus on the following factors:

  • A rise in the number of active Facebook users. The higher the rate of monthly visits, the more attractive Facebook becomes for marketers.
  • An increase in the number of innovative techniques that help study the consumer behavior of Facebook users. Such algorithms help the company attract customers who are aiming at promoting their own products and services on the Internet.
  • The monetization of Facebook and other Meta projects, including Instagram and WhatsApp.
  • Information about the global US stock market and the high-tech market. Keeping track of up-to-date information will help investors determine the best time to buy and sell the company's stock.
  • The global interest in the US stock market, as well as the investment attractiveness of the American economy compared with other countries.

If you prefer short-term trading, use technical analysis to monitor charts and forecast changes in the value of Meta stock.

Read the latest news about Meta and the global high-tech industry online in the Analysis section on the InstaForex website.

Conclusions

The rebrand of Facebook is not just a change of the name but rather a shift of focus for the development of the IT holding. Zuckerberg has ambitious plans that could take Meta to new heights in the future.

The American issuer owes the investment attractiveness of its stock to impressive financial results such as high revenue from advertising all kinds of goods and services to a broad user clientele.

The high-tech market continues to grow steadily, which means that Meta Platforms has every chance to expand in the future. In addition, market experts recommend that investors include the company's stock in their long-term portfolios.

If these facts have made you think it is time to invest in Meta, go to the InstaForex website and open an account. It will take you only a few minutes to register.