How Does Meta (Facebook) Make Money?

Facebook Inc. has finally embraced its long-adjourned aspiration of the metaverse. Facebook’s rebranding into Meta Platforms Inc. in October 2021 was as great a leap in the financial world as it was in the world of technology.

Now that the Big Five-Tech Giant Facebook has overhauled itself to fulfill its long-aspired dream of the metaverse, how would it affect future technology? What impact would Meta leave on the stock markets? All the more, how would Meta affect the marketing world? What is the metaverse, after all? Would the change affect the way the company makes money? How to break down Meta’s business model?

And now that the pie in the sky is reified, how would it be dished out to us?

Today, we find out!

General Information

Meta Platforms, Inc. Address:	1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California, United States
Zip Code:	94025
Traded as	NASDAQ: FB
ISIN	NL0009434992
Industry	Social media, Social network advertising and Consumer electronics
Founded	January 4, 2004; in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Products	Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Watch, Portal, Oculus and Calibra
Website:	about.fb.com

All You Need to Know About Facebook Meta

What is Facebook?

Facebook is unarguably the most popular of the world’s social networking services. It enables a user to own an account, make friends, join groups, chat, and share, access, and react to multimedia content, among other things.

The platform has always stayed ahead of the curve, starting from the older features like customizable account settings to today’s real-time updates from thousands of personal friends, friend groups, and brands that find a potential client in a user.

From a more financial point of view, Facebook allows an enterprise to put products and services on view, find potential customers, advertise, sell, fulfill services, and manage other aspects of the business. It not only enhances personal relations but also promotes business prospects.

The platform is owned, as of 2022, by Meta Platforms. Facebook Inc. owned the Facebook social media platform and a family of other services including WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Watch, Facebook Portal, Oculus, Giphy, and Mapillary. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the change in October 2021, just in time for holiday marketing strategy concocting.

Facebook also enables hyper-personalization. Hyper-targeted ads use all information submitted by the users – whether they choose the details to be visible to their friends or not – to personalize ad campaigns. This information spans from registration specifics to behavioral history.

The holiday season had always been the most overrated and anticipated sales season, even on Facebook. Facebook, as a marketer, had welcomed businesses to campaign better on the platform. With 2022-ready features such as Discovery Commerce System, hassle-free holiday market search, target community development, (both) consistent and festive insights, and customer engagement stratagem, Facebook is a haven for businesses and users alike.

The Shortest History of Meta Platforms

The history of Meta Platforms traces back to when a few Harvard students grouped under a fellow student called Mark Zuckerberg to create a social networking service called FaceMash. The website that enabled the service was up on October 28, 2003. Three months later, in February, the name was changed to Facebook after the American “facebooks” of the era.

Although Zuckerberg faced expulsion at a point, the nexus of FaceMash users extended from just the founders to other Harvard students, to other colleges of Boston, and the entire Ivy League, and then spanned to most student communities across the USA and Canada. The service was open by 2006 to all email addresses registered by anyone 13 years old or older.

Facebook was at IPO on New Year’s 2012. Facebook Inc. attracted sharks and small fishes alike while the Facebook platform much parallelly engaged hordes of individuals, businesses, organizations, and governments. Reliable sources list more than 90 acquisitions since 2005, most of which are US-based. The terms “Acq-hiring” and “talent acquisition” are greatly fitting, considering how well Meta incorporates the businesses to its business model.

Needless to say, leaks, lawsuits, allegations, and even some victories stemmed and ensued only to end soon.

Coincidentally on the 18th anniversary of the launch of FaceMash, on 28 October 2022, Zuckerberg announced the change of name to Meta Platforms Inc. The concept of “meta” would presumably become the face of all of Zuckerberg’s initiatives henceforth.

This could be as brief as the history of Facebook and Meta can get!

What is the Metaverse? How does the Concept Work?

Metaverse is the heartening new Meta Universe that will remove all traces of the borders of reality for our society. That is to say, the constraints of space, boundaries, time, inconvenience, expense, travel, inhibitions, and compulsions will become irrelevant in the coming years.

So, why exactly the name Meta? There are several other umbrella terms and ideologies that would do anything from hinting at the idea of new and futuristic technology to encapsulating it.

Zuckerberg and his associates had always been questing for a digital replacement to societal activities. One could say that Facebook Inc. acquired the rights to the name Meta to seal in this vision more perceptibly. The Meta Verse is envisaged to be a parallel, digital world that would serve as a convenient counterpart to many social spheres soon and the social world itself in the long run. Calling the Metaverse a 3D version of the internet would be rather a faint praise than a comprehensive definition.

The Metaverse combines the best of virtual and augmented realities (VR and AR) to produce a hybrid or mixed reality experience while using social media platforms. This would also result in the use of meta-media to bring about new marketing experiences that are more in line with the purchasing habits of the emergent era. Machine Learning will battle for the upheaval too with Facebook Meta Platforms Inc. at its front line.

Social media platforms and services including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Facebook Watch, and Facebook Portal would presumably operate in a real-time 3-dimensional realm augmented with real-time audio, messages, file transfer, other social media features, and gaming features once the Metaverse is at full throttle.

The wider and more feasible use of metadata may also come to pass when the metaverse is exercised to the fullest.

Meta Platforms Revenue Drivers – the Revenue Formula

So how does Facebook get paid? There is a lot that users – individuals and businesses – would love to know. Does it sell the personal data of its users? Does advertising or running a business on Facebook affect the confidentiality of my company’s data? How does Meta Platforms Inc. make money apart from Facebook? How does the Meta Platforms business model differ from the Facebook Inc. business model?

Here is the Meta Platforms business model explained!

To begin with, let us take note of some aspects of Facebook and Meta Platforms.

• The Meta Platforms business model is no different from the Facebook Inc. business model to date.
• Observers say that the company (both when it was Facebook Inc. and now as Meta Platforms Inc.) has always tried to own businesses with comparable or similar business models.
• No business ideally follows a definitive Business Model or BM that sets clear-cut borders, rules, revenue formulae, revenue drivers, or the likes. Unless a business model adapts the conventions of an “unalloyed business model” to create a unique one to call its own, it is much likely to fall than flourish.
• It is an asymmetric business model that acquires other asymmetric businesses dealing with social networking, digital marketing, digital experience, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and similar technologies.
• The business model is also attention-based, much like that of Google. Such models are also categorized as Attention merchant business models.
• Hidden revenue business models are followed by businesses that generate income and growth from paths that are not obvious to a generic user. Metadata is an example.

The Meta Platforms Business Model

In an Asymmetric Business Model like Meta’s, the data use of a user is not the only core asset. The company commoditizes a compliment from a different domain or industry. In other words, customer revenues are collected through other technological means or services of the company. This relationship is much like the cheapness of internet connectivity driving the OTT industry or ease of owning cars driving fuel sales.

Most of the social networking, e-commerce, and digital experience services offered by Meta Platforms are free, Facebook being the prime example. There has always been public suspicion upon Facebook regarding how they generate such a huge income and growth if it is free (and always will be!).

The truth is, Meta does not “sell” your data, but simply uses the insights they receive from your data, metadata, and history to show you ads that might suit you. Print media, Telemedia, and electronic media have always been doing this – the personalization and targeting just was at different levels of efficiency.

Meta Platforms Inc. generates its revenue mostly from advertising and the monetization of data and metadata that are generated when users – individuals, influencers, groups, and organizations use the platform. Revenue-generating attributes including AI are not products that will generate revenue for the company, rather more a service that will provide value to the users. Content creators and third parties are Meta’s key partners.

Now a Business Model comes under the Business Strategy arena. It describes how the business in question generates value. The Revenue Model is again a subset of the Business Model. The Revenue Model constitutes the revenue drivers alone. In that sense, metadata is as much a business strategy as a revenue driver for Meta.

The Many Pathways

Meta Platforms Inc. is a proud parent and conglomerate that derives revenues from each subsidiary in very different ways. But we could identify, generalize, and categorize the following revenue pathways of Meta.

1. As an ECommerce Platform with multiple trading posts

The shopping experiences provided by the subsidiaries of Meta are unarguably the most casual ones. Advertisers and businesses love Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Shops, and Instagram Checkout for their openness and ease. But the platforms also drive more (spontaneous) customers into their e-commerce.

Users of Facebook, Instagram, and other social networking websites tend to browse for products and services, just as much as click on ads. Brands flourish through direct ads, influencers, and interesting content on Meta’s e-commerce portals.

As a matter of course, Meta (then, Facebook) flourished from these platforms so well to the point where CFO David Wehner acknowledged the growth in public. He went on to accredit Meta’s revenue growth during the pandemic to the expansion of online commerce. The CFO also observed that users are increasingly more attracted towards the products themselves rather than the services available.

2. Facebook and Instagram Ads

Facebook and Instagram ads let businesses display accurately targeted ads to the users. As Meta will be able to show users the right ads at the right time, digital marketing will receive a massive upheaval. The users, meanwhile, will enjoy the shopping experiences that both will amalgamate and surpass the convenience of e-commerce and the privilege of tangibility offered by brick-and-mortar shops.

We will deal with the advertising revenues of Meta in a later section.

3. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger as Business Messaging Services

WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and other instant messaging services alongside their mobile app versions are becoming the apple of marketers’ eyes. We will see how that works too, in another later section of this write-up.

4. Workplace by Facebook

“Workplace” is an innovative software from Meta (formerly Facebook) that connects enterprises with over 7 million paid customers. Although the exact revenue generated by the subsidiary is not separately published yet, it is gaining thrust over its competitors like Microsoft Teams and Slack.

5. Facebook Pay – payment gateway

Meta is on its way to perfect all-roundedness with Facebook Pay. The company is working on bringing its payments infrastructure up to the mark within a couple of years.

6. Other Revenue Generators in Meta’s Business Model

Listed below are the lesser-acknowledged revenue drivers of Meta.

1. Oculus and Facebook Glasses – technology for virtual reality experiences in gaming and entertainment
2. Facebook Portal – smart video communication devices
3. Libra – Meta’s groundbreaking take on cryptocurrency; under development
4. Atlas – Ad-server and measurement platform advertisers
5. Onavo – Web Analytics services
6. Facebook Moves – Physical activity tracking application
7. LiveRail – Video advertising solutions
8. Masquerade – Visual filters application for mobile

The Key Driver

Meta derives most of its revenue from Facebook advertising. Revenues from advertising typically constitute over 90% of the total revenues.

• In 2018, the company saw a 37% increase in total annual revenue growth which reached $ 55.83 billion. Advertising revenues formed about $ 55.01 billion of it – 53% of the total annual income.
• Meta generated about $31.9 billion in advertising revenues in the first six months of 2019, which is about 66% of the total annual income of $32.33 billion.
• In 2019, Meta generated $70.69 billion – more than 26% annual growth. $ 67.37 billion of the revenue was from ads – 30% of the total annual income.
• 2020 annual revenue of Meta Platforms was about $85.96 billion despite the pandemic. The 21.6% growth from 2019 was accompanied by the $ 80.93 billion advertising revenues – 15% of the total annual income.
• Meta was predicted to generate $ 94.69 billion from ads alone. By the period of twelve months ending on September 30, 2021, Meta had generated $ 112.329 billion in revenue, up by 42.23% from 2020.

These statistics conclude that no less than 94% of the annual income of Meta Platforms Inc. had been generated from advertising revenues. Some reports suggest a minimum of 85% too.

In either case, now we have got more questions to answer!

How does Meta Platforms Make Money from Advertising? Who are Meta Platforms’ Customers?

In 2007, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was mustering his second-in-command – a COO – and surprised everyone. Zuckerberg handed the reins of his company’s operations to someone who knows their onions in advertising rather than technology. His choice, Sheryl Sandberg, was an advertising expert for Google for over six years. Although some observed that the future of Facebook Inc. is being sent to hospice, here we are seeing it evolve beautifully into Meta Platforms Inc. with the exponential growth of value.

Meta must be doing something right with its business model and Zuckerberg must have done something right with the post of chief operations officer!

Meta’s “Advertising” Business Model – Users vs Advertisers

To understand how Meta Platforms makes its money we need to consider the following:

1. Facebook has always been on the frontline of digital marketing. Facebook’s advertising revenues are generated through ( i ) self-serve advertising or dynamic ads, ( ii )  targeted advertisements, ( iii ) Facebook Messenger ads, ( iv ) video or content ads, ( v ) Facebook Mobile, and ( vi ) data generation.
2. There are three key customer segments to Meta Platforms – ( i ) users, ( ii ) advertisers and marketers, and ( iii ) developers. They are equally important to the company.

As Facebook Inc. is revamped as an “embodied internet” or Meta under Zuckerberg’s vision, the digital experiences provided through its many platforms would change for the better and good. Virtual reality will become the ultimate reality of digital marketing and e-commerce experiences. When the video and content ads become more dominant, audience retention will pave the way to more accurate data generation, insights, and thus, personalization and targeting. Product placement will become more organic too and will act more judiciously too, rather than being a distraction.

Long story short, there will be no question of “users versus advertisers” on Meta. Users may even love advertisements for the following reasons:

• Advertisements will be more personalized due to better metadata.
• Users will need to spend lesser time finding the products that will suit them.
• Digital experiences will empower users and businesses alike.
• “Targeting” is a positive word for advertisers, but today a negative word for users. This is because some users mistake it for digital theft and data selling by enterprises. But when targeting does a better job, as the metaverse gains hold, and as digital literacy and awareness becomes more successful, users will come to see that targeting is good for them too.

How is Meta Platforms Paid for Advertising? Who are Meta Platforms’ Customers?

Advertisements of all sorts posted on the different social networking sites and services owned by Meta (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and their mobile applications) contribute to the biggest slice of their revenue cake. Ads through other third-party affiliated websites make for a good share too.

Meta is paid by digital marketers for the number of impressions or actions, PPC ads for example. Ad targeting or personalization can be based on location, gender, age group, and detailed targeting specifics such as interests, behaviors, and other demographics.

Targeting comes naturally with Facebook and Instagram. The accuracy surpasses those of Youtube or Whatsapp in that interaction is minimal on the latter couple of services. Facebook and Instagram involve personal and social interactions, content, and provisions of all sorts.

How Meta Platforms Makes Money from WhatsApp and Other Instant Messaging Services

Commercial messages sent through messaging services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are nothing but email marketing and customer services combined, spruced up, and muscled up.

Mass messaging requires lesser effort, formalities, data, and confirmations compared to other options. Hence it is more economic and less time-consuming for businesses. There is also a higher chance of sales propagation as target users may pass the links or information on to acquaintances.

Through these platforms, businesses can improve marketing, customer support, and customer retention stats. Most websites these days place chat widgets of these apps to let customers sales or customer support services more directly. Singapore Airlines, for example, offers flight status updates through WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

How Meta Platforms Makes money from Hardware

It is common knowledge in the business world that the non-advertising revenue drivers of Meta Platforms Inc. contribute only about 2% of its total revenues. But this fact does not do justice to the fact that the revenue from pathways other than advertising saw a growth of over 36% in just three months amidst the pandemic.

Examples are:

1. Facebook Portal and Portal for Business – smart video communication devices including Portal TV, Portal Go, and Portal+.
2. Oculus – virtual reality headsets, games, equipment, and apps.
3. Facebook Glasses – virtual and augmented reality glasses.

Other Ways How Meta Platforms Makes Money You Might Not Know About

Meta also makes money through:

1. Financial Products – cryptocurrency (Libra), passively-managed ETF investing, Meta Financial, etc.
2. Facebook Audience Networks – enables companies to monetize their apps and videos.
3. Games on Facebook – Meta is paid by developers to promote their games on social media networking platforms such as Facebook.

Mergers and Acquisitions of Meta

Meta Platforms Inc. has taken in over 90 companies in about 15 years, in the form of mergers, acquisitions, asset acquisitions, management acquisitions, consolidations, and tender offers. A considerable majority of Meta’s M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) are “talent acquisitions” of digital businesses, similar business models, or both. About 60 of these companies are based in the United States. Most of these companies again are based in or around USA’s San Francisco Bay Area.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s openness to the acquisition of startups even before their era is worth note. He was already a self-made billionaire when Zuckerberg humbly asked the Quora community for suggestions on what startups to buy, back in 2009.

The Top 5 Companies Owned By Facebook (Meta)

Out of its 90+ acquisitions, the following are ranked frequently at the top:

1. Instagram: The multimedia (photo and video) sharing application was acquired by Meta on April 9, 2012, for $1.0 billion. The platform remains separate.
2. WhatsApp: Meta acquired the instant mobile messenger service for $19.0 billion on February 19, 2014, in a Cash & Stock deal. It serves as a business messaging app.
3. Oculus VR: The leading virtual and augmented reality technology company is a subsidiary of Meta since March 25, 2014. It was acquired for $2.0 billion.
4. Onavo: The mobile web analytics company is estimated to have been acquired in October 2013 for somewhere between $100 and 200 million.
5. Beluga: The acquisition cost for Beluga is yet undisclosed. The messaging service was acquired on March 2, 2011.

WhatsApp Funding and Valuation & Revenue

WhatsApp’s initial founder Jan Koum amassed pre-seed funding for WhatsApp Inc. and incorporated it in California on February 24, 2009. Co-founder Brian Acton later found seed funding $250,000 from five of his ex-colleagues from Yahoo!. He joined the team officially in November. WhatsApp had reportedly received multiple acquisition offers from Google by 2010 and declined them.

American venture capital firm Sequoia invested about $8 million in the fiscal year ending April 30, 2011. In the third funding round, WhatsApp amassed $52 million, again from Sequoia Capital on Jul 1, 2013. The three rounds of funding for WhatsApp adds up to an amount of $60.3 million.

Facebook Inc. (today, Meta) acquired the instant messaging app on February 19, 2014, within five years of its incorporation at a $1.5 billion valuation. The $19 billion acquisition is Meta’s largest, with Oculus VR acquired for $2 billion and Instagram trailing behind at $1.0 billion.

WhatsApp Revenue

WhatsApp was found to have derived $3.82 million in revenues in 2012 and $10.21 million in 2013.

After its acquisition in 2014, the revenue values we have at hand are estimates and not actual values released by the company or its parent. The estimate for 2016 was $0.2 billion. The company is said to have made around $1.3 billion in 2018 and $5.5 billion in 2020.

Meta Platforms Business Outlook and Future Plans

Labeling the change from Facebook Inc. to Meta Platforms Inc. as a rebranding would be a very bold far cry. The company is reimagined to become the future of the internet and of the digital world itself. The CEO envisions a future where everything in the digital space will manifest to virtual and augmented realities with exponential technological growth.

Meta had always strived to be more than just another social media company and seems like it will be far more than what it ever envisaged. The new name is intended to reflect the broader vision.

This would enable users to interact socially in virtual reality circles, browse for products with the best shopping experiences of online and real-world shops, take up (several) experiences they could never have in real life, and more. Meta is also taking away its focus on Facebook by making a Facebook account for using other services no longer mandatory. Internet presence and literacy will become metaverse awareness. The concept of the metaverse is an unrivaled ultimate future of internet usage, social life, research prospects, technological growth, and in course of time, human life itself.

These privileges would in turn mean that businesses can use augmented digital content to market effectively, superior metadata to target more accurately, and offer various customer services at a lower cost of money and time. Accessibility will become a defining feature of Meta, considering that consumers and creators will find it more convenient to use their technologies than the ones offered by other ventures.

Again, Meta Platforms would lead the way for their users, advertisers and marketers, and developers, alike into the Metaverse. More businesses will want to access the marketing privileges, while more users will depend on the various platforms of the metaverse for everything from socializing and shopping to education and research. The company also hopes to bring down the overall carbon footprint too – you get the picture, and it’s big!

Content marketing businesses, other digital services, digital electronics, and hardware businesses, and naturally developers will find their dealings swelling. Resultantly, job openings in the said arenas, coding, designing, technology miniaturization, three-dimensional technology, etc. would flourish too – all to the delight of Meta Platforms and its stakeholders of the future.

The company says that it does not plan to get this done by a single company. Inputs from various spheres of the digital world will be collaborated and conglomerated under the umbrella of Meta.
The CEO, as it seems, puts better services before money. But it goes without saying that a vast majority of businesses in the world would throw their money at the doorsteps of Meta to access the metaverse. Meta plans to develop its business model to “support” hefty long-term investments and better its services using the funds.

Since Meta will aim at building on privacy, safety, novel technical work, and better digital and financial ecosystems, the developers, creators, and enterprises in the niches would see an upheaval too. Meta will focus on bringing people together from different backgrounds and on different grounds. So businesses with a scope anywhere people come together can use the metaverse to grow.

Meta Platforms Controversies, Public Clashes, and Legal Disputes

Controversies are inevitable with growth. And when growth involves technology, data, people, businesses, marketing, and other intangible and incomprehensible aspects, wrangles ensue like anything.

Following is a brief account of the major controversies surrounding Meta Platforms Inc.

• Meta had allegedly funded an anti-Google email campaign back in 2011 making controversial comments regarding the privacy policies of Google. The company denied the allegations.
• Facebook faced criticism for allowing violent content on its platform. The problem was solved by 2015.
• Meta’s Slingshot and Instagram Stories launched in 2014 and 2016 respectively were said to have copied some features of Snapchat.
• The Facebook platform had hosted several videos plagiarized from other sources. The platform did not have sufficient codes to prevent such copyright infringement and freebooting issues. The problem was solved the same year.
• Meta has resorted to different tax avoidance techniques (like the Double Irish and Dutch Sandwich tax avoidance schemes) to save millions of dollars. But the company had to face some legal issues in 2016 and 2017.
• The Facebook platform has faced criticism due to its actions (or inactions) regarding content related to the 2018 riots in Sri Lanka, and Uyghur genocide denial, and Myanmar abuses in 2021.
• The Instagram Reels launched in 2020 feature is said to have been copied off TikTok.
• In 2020, when Apple Inc. initiated some anti-tracking measures, Meta publicly commented that the policies would drown small businesses giving way to a silent feud between the companies and the organizations that backed each.
• Meta’s Live Audio Rooms rollout of 2021 is said to have copied some features of Clubhouse.
• Meta has also seen several instances where some of its intellectual property like the “Like” button was copied/misused by other networks.

Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal

UK-based consultancy Cambridge Analytica obtained personal data of Facebook users allegedly without the consent of its parent, Facebook Inc. (now Meta). The data was supposed to be used for political advertising. In 2015, Meta publicly denied their controversial role in the actions of Aleksandr Kogan and Cambridge Analytica. The company was fined £500,000 ($677000) for its role in the scandal. Following the events in 2018, the firm had expressed remorse and redeemed itself in the public eye.

2021 Facebook leak

Also known as the Facebook Files or Facebook Papers, a series of controversial papers from (then) Facebook Inc. was publicized by whistleblower data scientist and product manager Frances Haugen. The Wall Street Journal published tens of thousands of the company’s internal documents for Haugen who also disclosed the content to the Securities and Exchange Commission. CNN, Fox Business, and other news giants too had been outlets for the whistleblower.

Probably the biggest controversy Facebook Inc. had faced until then, the document leak testified that the company was aware of its harmful effects on society in a deep way.

The reports proved the company’s awareness of the harmful effects of Instagram on teenagers, team member dissatisfaction, Apple’s threat to remove Facebook and Instagram, etc. The Facebook platform was said to have knowingly promoted violence in developing countries and controlled falsehoods about the U.S. elections. While the Facebook platform had claimed that its AI removes all violent content in disagreement with its policies, its employees reportedly said that the AI could remove only about 0.6% of it.

FAQ’s

1. Why did Facebook choose NASDAQ over NYSE?

The NASDAQ charges much lesser listing fees than the NYSE, to begin with. NASDAQ is also the market of choice of its Big Five peers –  Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google (Alphabet). Market watchers suggest that these might be the reasons why Facebook Inc. (Meta Platforms Inc.) chose NASDAQ.

2. What does Facebook’s Rebrand to Meta mean?

Facebook’s revamp to Meta would reflect its vision of the metaverse. The metaverse aims to heighten digital experiences through virtual and augmented reality technologies. Businesses around the world will benefit from this change since the public user activity will become more engaging than ever.

The rebrand might change the future of common users, businesses, and the world alike.

3. How much can I earn from Facebook ads? How much do you get paid for 1 million views on Facebook?

Facebook offers monetization tools to help both individuals and organizations find a sustainable mode of income. The four main ways to generate money from Facebook are:

1. In-stream ads – Running in-stream video ads is the primary option but you can also turn existing content into video content.
2. Fan subscriptions – engage your fans more with subscriptions.
3. Branded content – brands are money, whether yours or a paid brand.
4. Subscription groups – engage a larger number of people.

Facebook content creators testify an average of 0.5 – 0.8 cents per visitor. Other creators also say that they get about 0.9 cents per visitor.

It may also be noted that the revenue one can generate from content depends dynamically upon geography, number of impressions, number of subscribers, engagement level, etc.

If we normalize such factors, consider 0.5 – 0.9 cents per view, and do the math, we arrive at

• 5 cents x 1,000,000 = 500,000 cents = $5000 per million views, and
• 9 cents x 1,000,000 = 900,000 cents = $9000 per million views.

That is $5000 to $9000 per million views.

4. How does Mark Zuckerberg make money from Facebook?

Digital Marketing is the strongest revenue source of the Facebook social networking platform. The CEO receives advertising revenues are generated through ( i ) self-serve advertising or dynamic ads, ( ii )  targeted advertisements, ( iii ) Facebook Messenger ads, ( iv ) video or content ads, ( v ) the Facebook Mobile app, and ( vi ) data generation from Facebook.

It may be noted that Meta Platforms Inc. has several other revenue-generating platforms and other revenue-generators through Facebook.

5. Should You Buy Meta (FB) Stock for Long Term? How to Analyze Meta?

The (NASDAQ: FB) stock of Meta Platforms Inc. is expected to receive an upheaval post rebrand. Before investing in any stock though, extensive fundamental analysis is essential. The insights should then lead to various risk and reward analyses.

The act of buying the stock, again, should be carried out at right time and in the right volumes with the help of suitable technical analysis results.

Executive Summary

Meta Platforms Inc. and the Metaverse

In October 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook Inc. is being rebranded to Meta Platforms Inc. With this change unfolded the promising vista of the metaverse – a form of the internet where all digital experiences would manifest into virtual reality.

The company had been in quest of technology that would serve in effectuating the metaverse. It has acquired over 90 other businesses in the digital and technological niches mostly in the purview of fulfilling this vision.

Social media services, content sharing platforms, e-commerce megastores, gaming, education, research, business administration, designing, and any other domains where the internet, technology, and communication are involved will expand and thrive with the metaverse ideated by Meta Platforms Inc.

Meta Platforms Business Model

Meta Platfroms Inc. follows an asymmetric, attention-based business model. The users, advertisers and marketers, and developers form the major customer segments of the business. Platform development and maintenance, data security, and strategic acquisitions are its key activities.

The individual users enjoy the privileges of social networking, online shopping, messaging, file transfers, entertainment, infotainment, etc., for little to no charges. The company derives its huge share of revenues from advertising and the monetization of data and metadata of user activities on the platform.

Meta Platforms Revenue Model

Meta Platforms Inc. generates its revenues from the following key revenue drivers and categories:

1. Advertisement on its platforms such as Facebook and Instagram
2. Running and Hosting eCommerce
3. The employment of instant messaging services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for Business Messaging and Broadcasting.
4. Business-assisting services such as Workplace by Facebook
5. Facebook Pay – payment gateway
6. Technology Hardware and related services such as Oculus, Facebook Portal, and Facebook Glasses.
7. Financial Products including cryptocurrency (Libra, under development), passively-managed ETF investing, Meta Financial, etc.
8. Numerous other revenue sources such as apps, advertising solutions, content monetization, web analytics services, etc.

Advertising as the Chief Revenue Driver of Meta Platforms

Advertising contributes about 98% of the total revenue. Since the metaverse will enrich and exalt digital experiences, both users and businesses could reap the suitable fruits.

Improved content will lead to magnified experiences which will, in turn, lead to better audience retention. Such factors will result in enhanced metadata and hence targeting. When ads are targeted better advertisements will perform better by driving in sales massively. Since the users encounter much lesser irrelevant advertisements, they are more likely to stay interested in the platforms and content too. This again will lead to better advertising insights from user activity.

The metaverse proposes a better future for user experience, digital experience, marketing efficiency, and growth.

Mergers and Acquisitions of Meta Platforms

Meta’s M&A are majorly talent acquisitions of digital and technological businesses. The acquired businesses mostly follow business models comparable to that of Meta Platforms Inc. Two from three of the acquired subsidiaries of Meta were individual ventures based in the United States. Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus VR, Onavo, and Beluga are frequently ranked as the top five acquisitions of Meta.

Meta Platforms Business Outlook and the Metaverse

The metaverse, alongside the accessibility, convenience, and seamlessness it brings on will define the technologies and services offered by Meta Platforms.

When the envisaged virtual and augmented realities are fulfilled to the envisaged scales, human life will be enriched with better internet usage, social life, research prospects, and technological growth.

Businesses, therefore, can market more effectively and will depend on Meta at a defining scale. Accuracy of metadata, augmented digital content, ease of access and operation of customer services, and other privileges would improve the effectiveness of marketing.

Meta will uplift and collaborate more with content marketing businesses, all strains of digital services, digital electronics and hardware businesses, and developers. Privacy and digital and financial ecosystems will also be the key foci of Meta in the future.

The Metaverse would be, to conclude, the future of Meta Platforms, the internet, and the world itself at large.