Facebook hit the $1 trillion in market capitalization milestone yesterday after its stock went up in late-day trading. This can be partly attributed to the favourable legal ruling that acquitted the tech giant from an antitrust complaint the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held against it.
On Monday was Facebook’s first time of closing above $1 trillion in market capitalization. Hitting the $1 trillion milestone yesterday automatically made Facebook the fifth U.S. company to do so. Facebook, therefore, joins Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google-parent company Alphabet, in the league of companies with at least $1 trillion in market capitalization.
Facebook’s shares closed up 4.2% at $355.64 after a favorable legal ruling that dismissed an antitrust complaint brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of state attorneys general.
The company’s revenue comes primarily from personalized ads that are shown across all its platforms like Facebook and Instagram. As part of its expansive/diversifying efforts, the company also has a budding hardware business. Its hardware business has come up with products such as its Oculus virtual reality headset and smart eyewear, Portal video-calling device, etc., most of which are set to be released before the year comes to a conclusion.
Facebook had its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in May 2012 and debuted with an impressive $104 billion market capitalization.
The company has also recorded some downturns. For example, in 2018, the company had a 19 percent drop after sharing what it described as disappointing revenue and user figures for Q2 of that year. The huge drop was a result of quite a menagerie of scandals and challenges it faced. They included data leaks, fake news, and, unforgettably, the Cambridge Analytica scandal — in which a data firm got access to the data of 87 million Facebook users and used it to send target ads for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
Facebook has bounced back strong from all these challenges and has continued to provide users across all its platforms with safety and an indelible user experience. The company’s user base and average revenue per user has been growing steadily and its stock price is now up more than 90% since July 27, 2018; the year it faced the most challenges.
Paul Femi Balo is the founder and publisher of TechBooky. He covers artificial intelligence, African technology, digital infrastructure, enterprise technology and the global digital economy.
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