Facebook at 20: Major milestones that shaped world's biggest social media platform

Facebook is now 20 years old, becoming one of the oldest social media platforms.

Mark Zuckerberg launched the platform initially as thefacebook.com in 2004, but as its popularity grew, the name was changed.

In less than a year since launch, Facebook garnered about 1 million users.

In 2009, Facebook gave people a new way to interact with the "like" button.

In 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for a sum of $1 billion.

Facebook then acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for a whopping amount of $19 billion.

In 2014, Facebook also stepped into the novel realm of virtual reality with the acquisition of Oculus VR.

In 2021, Facebook was rebranded to Meta, which became a parent company for WhatsApp, Instagram, and Oculus.