Mark Zuckerberg

A college site that opened to everyone

Facebook was founded in February 2004, and Zuckerberg and his co-founders built the website that year. By 2006 he was its founder and chief executive. In September 2006 it stopped being a network for schools and workplaces: anyone with a valid email address could join.37824

The next step was Facebook Platform, which Zuckerberg unveiled at the f8 event in May 2007. His pitch was that "any developer worldwide can build full social applications on top of the social graph, inside of Facebook".9

Paying $17 billion for two rivals

In April 2012 Facebook agreed to buy Instagram for about $1 billion. Zuckerberg said the company was "committed to building and growing Instagram independently". Facebook went public the following month.410

WhatsApp cost far more. In February 2014 Facebook agreed to pay about $16 billion, made up of $4 billion in cash and about $12 billion in Facebook shares. By 2014 it had also bought Oculus, as part of a bet on virtual reality.511

Meta, and a bet on open AI models

In October 2021 Zuckerberg introduced Meta as the company's new name. From the fourth quarter of 2021 Meta reported two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. In his founder's letter he said the mission was unchanged: it was still about bringing people together.625

In July 2024 Meta released Llama 3.1 405B, which it called the first frontier-level open source AI model, along with new 70B and 8B versions. Zuckerberg wrote that he believed "open source is the best development stack for you", and that Meta was committed to open source AI.15

Llama 405B also went into Meta AI for harder maths and coding questions. Meta said the assistant was on track for almost 500 million monthly users by the end of 2024.26

Privacy penalties and an antitrust fight

In July 2019 the FTC said Facebook would pay a record $5 billion penalty and accept new privacy restrictions and a modified corporate structure. That settlement was with the company. Two privacy class actions against Facebook also ended in court-approved settlements, in February 2021 and October 2023.122021

In December 2020 the FTC sued, alleging that Facebook kept a monopoly in personal social networking through a strategy that included buying Instagram and WhatsApp. Meta replied that the deals were meant to give people better products and that regulators had cleared them at the time. The docket we reviewed lists orders through November 2025 but does not say what they decided, so the outcome is unknown here.131417

A separate FTC complaint in 2022, over Meta's planned purchase of Within Unlimited, named Zuckerberg as the person who controls Meta. Meta said that case was based on "ideology and speculation, not evidence".1819

In April 2025 the European Commission found Meta in breach of the Digital Markets Act and fined it €200 million. Meta called the decision incorrect and unlawful and said it was appealing.2223

Zuckerberg, year by year

1. Feb 2004

   Facebook is founded; Zuckerberg and his co-founders build the website that year37

2. Sep 2006

   Facebook opens to anyone with a valid email address8

3. May 2007

   Zuckerberg unveils Facebook Platform at the f8 event9

4. Apr 2012

   Facebook agrees to buy Instagram for about $1 billion4

5. May 2012

   Facebook goes public10

6. Feb 2014

   Facebook agrees to buy WhatsApp for about $16 billion, $4 billion of it in cash5

7. 2014

   Facebook has bought Oculus by this year as part of a push into virtual reality11

8. Jul 2019

   The FTC announces a record $5 billion penalty against Facebook over privacy12

9. Dec 2020

   The FTC sues Facebook over its Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions1314

10. Oct 2021

    Zuckerberg introduces Meta as the company's new name6

11. Jul 2024

    Meta releases Llama 3.1 405B, 70B and 8B15

12. 2025

    Meta reports $200.97 billion in revenue for the year2

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