A quick overview of Facebook’s journey to the $1T market cap club

Recently, Facebook joined the elite club of publicly listed corporations in the United States with a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion. Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet are also members of this group, making Facebook the youngest company to accomplish this milestone.

Here's a timeline of Facebook's major accomplishments that helped it reach this milestone:

· On February 4, 2004, Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues launch TheFacebook on the Harvard campus.

· The following year, it extends to other universities and changes its name to Facebook.

· In September 2006, it begins allowing users above the age of 13 from any nation who have a verified email address.

· It makes money for the first time by running advertisements in 2007. Along with Google, it is now one of the major companies in the digital ad market.

· Until recently, Facebook has been in purchase negotiations with Yahoo, Microsoft, and Viacom, with the social network valued at up to $1 billion.

Afterwards, Microsoft announces an advertising agreement with Facebook, as well as an investment of $240 million at a $15 billion estimated value.

· In 2009, Facebook acquired FriendFeed, which "inspired" the creation of the Like button. This inspired feature dates back a long time.

· In 2011, Goldman Sachs invests $450 million in the company, making Zuckerberg and co. worth $50 billion.

· Facebook Messenger hits mobile in the same year, with iOS and Android applications.

· Facebook goes public in 2012, with a value of $104 billion. In the same year, it achieves 1 billion users worldwide.

· The company buys Instagram for $1 billion just before its IPO.

· In 2014, the company paid $2 billion for the acquisition of Oculus, a producer of virtual reality headsets.

· The same year, the social network completes its largest purchase, WhatsApp, for $19 billion.

· In 2015, the company introduces potentially profitable features including Instant articles and livestreaming. The latter was then made available to everyone in the year 2017.

· In 2016, Facebook and AdBlocker fell into dispute about the placement of advertising on the blue site.

· In 2017, the company's market capitalization exceeds $500 billion. Launches the Watch video streaming service to compete with YouTube.

· While Facebook hits 2 billion active users in 2017, it loses users in the United States and Canada the following year.

· Facebook Dating is revealed in 2018, and it is fully launched in 2019.

· The firm releases Portal, a hardware gadget for video conferencing that same year.

· With a new product in 2020, the social network enters the shopping market.

· Facebook plans to enter the audio industry the next year, with offerings ranging from real-time discussion rooms to podcasts and voice snippets.

· In June 2021, Facebook will transform WhatsApp into a shopping hub.

Again, this is simply a quick overview of Facebook's revenue generation, product development, and acquisition history. The company has a history of controversies that jeopardize customer data privacy, such as the Cambridge Analytica affair. It also has a propensity of secretly stealing your info. All of this has resulted in many antitrust probes against the company.

Regrettably, as Facebook's market worth hit $1 trillion, the Federal Trade Commission rejected a lawsuit involving WhatsApp and Instagram acquisitions (FTC).