“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.” — African Proverb
Humans are fundamentally social creatures. Our connections and cooperation are arguably our most important attributes, allowing us to build everything we take for granted today. Recognizing this, Meta, then Facebook, started as a way to digitize and enhance the ability of students at Harvard University to make such crucial connections, and quickly expanded to other institutions.
Since its humble beginnings, Meta has grown into one of the most valuable companies in human history. Today, across all of its platforms, Meta is approaching 4 billion active daily users. That’s nearly half of the population of the planet. Today, we recognize 22 years of Meta connecting us.
Meta provides its billions of users unique mediums of expression and commerce. Meta’s suite of services come together like a Swiss Army knife for users, with unique audiences and features for the myriad ways people choose to share information. Most Americans are familiar with Meta’s various offerings, whether it’s Facebook Marketplace or Instagram. If you want to sell an old piece of furniture, Meta can help. If you want to engage in citizen video journalism, Meta has an app for that. And if you just want to unwind at the end of a long day and share a laugh with distant friends and family, Meta can help with that, too. What many Americans might not know is how much the rest of the world uses Meta’s WhatsApp due to its wide variety of features and lean data needs. It’s safe to say the company’s investments in WhatsApp have delivered reliable connectivity to people around the world more effectively than countless governments.
All of this utility translates into immense job and wealth creation. Through its expansive and reliable services, Meta has created a tool for advertisers of all shapes and sizes to more efficiently and effectively find prospective customers. No longer does a mom-and-pop shop need to blanket the airwaves with expensive ads for the mere hope of catching the attention of customers. Now small businesses can go toe-to-toe with major brands and focus their funds on serving customers instead of finding them. Consumers benefit from this, too. Because of innovations driven by various digital companies including Meta, consumers are more likely to see advertisements that are actually interesting and useful to them than ever before. These economic efficiencies allow for industries of all kinds to grow and create countless new jobs.
Yet while Meta has grown and evolved, at the end of the day, its underlying value remains the same. Whether it is scheduling with a service on WhatsApp, selling on Facebook Marketplace, sharing with friends and followers on Instagram, or keeping up with family on Facebook, Meta remains all about making it easier to do the most important thing in our lives: connecting and sharing with others.
Image via Unsplash.