Facebook is now a trillion company; hits a $1 trillion market cap for the first time

On July 11, 2011, Facebook became the first website to top one trillion page views per month, leading some financial analysts to speculate that Facebook could be the first one-trillion company. But that title was taken by Apple when its shares hit the magic number of $207.05 on August 18, 2018, making it the first US company in history to be worth more than $1 trillion on a public stock market.

Less than three years after Apple became the first trillion company, today Facebook became the youngest company ever to hit a trillion-dollar market cap crossing $1 trillion in market capitalization for the first time on Monday since its inception in February 2004.

The social giant is now the fifth U.S. company to hit the milestone, joining Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google-parent company Alphabet. Facebook accomplished the feat in just 17 years. It took Google 21 years, Amazon 24 years, Apple 42 years, and Microsoft 44 years.

Facebook stock popped on Monday after a District judge dismissed two antitrust cases filed by the federal government and a coalition of states. Its shares soared nearly 5% in late-day trading aided by a favorable legal ruling that dismissed an antitrust complaint brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Facebook was founded on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg and college roommates and fellow Harvard University students including Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. Zuckerberg was was 19 years old when he launched thefacebook.com. The social network was later renamed Facebook in 2005.

At its inception, Facebook membership was limited to Harvard students before it gradually expanded to other North American universities. As of 2020, Facebook claimed the platform has 2.8 billion monthly active users and ranked seventh in global internet usage.

Today, over 2.79 billion people globally use Facebook. 73% of U.S. Facebook users log in daily and
36% of Americans get their news from Facebook. In addition, 57% of U.S. social media users use Facebook to share content.