Facebook currently has 3.07 billion monthly active users. It is by far the world's largest social network, which is especially notable because it is 20 years old now.

The Facebook of today wasn't how it started out. Here's a brief walk down the memory lane.

See Also: If You Invested $1000 In Apple When Steve Jobs Returned To Apple 28 Years Ago, Here’s How Much You’d Have

The Harvard Social Network

Facebook, founded as "Thefacebook" in 2004, was initially a project designed to connect Harvard University students. It was subsequently expanded to other Ivy League schools and subsequently to other academic institutions in the U.S. and Canada.

Given its exploding success, though, Zuckerberg and his fellow co-founders, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes eventually opened up the platform for everyone.

Facebook's snappy and intuitive interface, for its time, quickly gained traction since users could quickly share photos, updates and more with their friends and family.

The company eventually dropped "The" from its name and rechristened itself as just "Facebook" after acquiring the facebook.com domain name for $200,000 in 2005.

Some of Facebook's initial investors include Peter Thiel and LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman.

Facebook went public in 2012, eight years after its launch.

Let’s look at how Meta stock has fared since its IPO 12 years ago.

Meta launched its IPO at $38.

Its stock price today is $474.99, which is an increase of 1,150% during this period.

If you had invested $1,000 in Meta stock on May 18, 2012, today, you would have $12,425.

Likewise, if you had invested $1,000 in an index fund replicating Nasdaq, you would have $5,624.

A similar $1,000 investment in an index fund that replicates the S&P 500 would be worth $3,828.

Controversies Galore

Facebook has been at the center of several controversies over its 20-year existence. It has been accused of violating patents to misusing data and spreading misinformation.

Amongst its biggest controversies is the Cambridge Analytica scandal. A whistleblower revelation stated that the British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, harvested 50 million Facebook user profiles to target them with political advertisements.

AI-Powered Future

Zuckerberg announced a pivot in 2021, renaming the company from Facebook to Meta and launching a virtual reality world called Metaverse, with artificial intelligence (AI) playing a key role in enabling interactions amongst users.

Meta's AI push has included the launch of Llama large-language model, with a focus on adopting an open-source approach. Its AI efforts are led by Yann LeCun, also known as one of the godfathers of cutting-edge technology.

More recently, Meta announced its own AI chips to power Facebook and Instagram in a bid to cut costs as well as reduce its reliance on Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA).

Wedbush's Dan Ives believes the "comeback kid" Zuckerberg is "just getting started" while sounding a bullish note about Meta's prospects, adding that AI will be the next growth driver for the company.

Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.

Read Next: If You Invested $1000 In Apple When iTunes Was Launched 23 Years Ago Today, Here's How Much You'd Have

Photo: Solen Feyissa on Unsplash