Facebook is a technology giant with a vast empire of businesses, products, and services. Since its inception in 2004, the company has grown to become one of the world’s most valuable corporations.
Facebook has bought a lot of other companies in its quest to become an even bigger global superpower. These include social media networks, virtual reality startups, and even domain names.
So, I decided to take a comprehensive look at the companies Facebook owns, including a brief history of each acquisition, the date, the amount paid, and the impact each company has had on Facebook.
Let’s find out…
Contents
What Companies Does Facebook Own?
Parakey
Parakey was a software company that was founded in 2005 by Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt. The company was acquired by Facebook in 2007 for an undisclosed amount.
The primary function was to develop a web-based operating system that allowed users to access their personal files and applications from any computer connected to the internet. Parakey’s technology became the foundation for Facebook Mobile, which was launched soon after the acquisition.
ConnectU
ConnectU was a social networking site that was founded in 2004 by a group of students from Harvard University. The company was acquired by Facebook in 2008 for a reported 31 million dollars.
The acquisition was a result of a court settlement between Facebook and ConnectU, which had accused Facebook of stealing its code. After the acquisition, ConnectU’s technology was integrated into Facebook, and its founders went on to start other ventures.
FriendFeed
FriendFeed was a social network that was founded in 2007 and acquired by Facebook in 2009. The company was bought by Facebook for 47.5 million dollars, and its technology was used to enhance Facebook’s newsfeed feature.
The founders of FriendFeed, Paul Buchheit, Bret Taylor, and Jim Norris, went on to become prominent figures in the tech industry, with Buchheit co-founding Gmail and Taylor co-founding Quip and joining Salesforce as the CTO.
Octazen
Octazen was a Malaysian software company that was acquired by Facebook in 2010 for an undisclosed amount, and its two engineers became remote workers for Facebook.
Octazen’s technology was integrated into Facebook’s web search and graph search features.
Divvyshot
Divvyshot was a photo-sharing company that was founded in 2009 and acquired by Facebook in 2010 for an undisclosed amount. Its technology was used to enhance Facebook’s photo-sharing capabilities.
After the acquisition, the co-founders of Divvyshot, Sam Odio and Paul Carduner went on to start other ventures.
Friendster Patents
Friendster was one of the first social networking sites and was founded in 2002.
In 2010, Facebook acquired Friendster’s patents for 40 million dollars. The patents were acquired to protect Facebook from any potential legal action from Friendster, which would later shut down all of its operations in 2018.
ShareGrove was a company that provided a social network for workgroups. It was founded in 2008 and acquired by Facebook in 2020 for an undisclosed amount. Its technology was integrated into Facebook’s Groups feature.
Zenbe
Zenbe was a company that provided sharing services by one person to a group of other people.
The company was founded in 2006 and acquired by Facebook in 2010 for an undisclosed amount. Its technology was integrated into Facebook’s Messenger feature.
Nextstop
Nextstop was a location-based network that was acquired by Facebook. The acquisition took place on July 8, 2010, and Facebook paid 2,500,000 dollars for the company.
It was founded by Charles Lin, Carl Sjogreen, and Adrian Graham, who were all ex-Google employees. The technology developed by Nextstop was integrated into Facebook’s Places feature.
Chai Labs
Chai Labs was a company that developed machine learning algorithms and was founded in 2007. Facebook acquired Chai Labs in 2010 for $10 million.
The company was founded by Gokul Rajaram, Giri Rajaram, and other employees who had previously worked at Merus Capital, Google, Yahoo, and Cisco.
The technology was integrated into Facebook’s machine-learning capabilities.
Hot Potato
Hot Potato was a location-based social network that allowed users to share their experiences at specific locations. The company was acquired by Facebook on August 20, 2010, for an estimated 10 million dollars.
It was founded by Saadiq Rodgers-King, Justin Shaffer, and six others. The technology was integrated into Facebook’s Places feature.
Drop.io
Drop.io was a file-sharing company that was founded in 2007 and acquired by Facebook on October 29, 2010. The amount paid for Drop.io was estimated to be 10 million dollars.
It was founded by Sam Lessin and was backed by RRE Ventures. The technology was integrated into Facebook’s file-sharing capabilities.
FB.com
Facebook bought the domain name “FB.com” on November 15, 2010, for $8.5 million. Facebook bought the domain name to make its web address shorter and easier to remember.
It is worth noting that the domain name, facebook.com, was purchased for 200,000 dollars in 2005. This was a name change from “thefacebook.com,” which is no longer used by the platform.
Rel8tion
Rel8tion was a marketing technology company that was founded in 2010 founded by Peter Wilson and was acquired by Facebook on January 25, 2011.
The amount paid for Rel8tion remains undisclosed.
Beluga
Beluga was a group messaging service that was founded in 2010 and was acquired by Facebook on March 2, 2011. The amount paid remains undisclosed.
The company was founded by Jonathan Perlow, Lucy Zhang, and Ben Davenport. The technology was integrated into Facebook’s Messenger feature.
Snaptu
Snaptu was a social media aggregator app. It was acquired by Facebook on March 20, 2011, for 70 million dollars. The company was based in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The technology was integrated into Facebook’s mobile application capabilities.
Instagram was acquired by Facebook on April 9, 2012, for 1 billion dollars.
It has had a significant impact on Facebook, becoming one of the most popular photo-sharing platforms in the world.
There Are Just So Many!
Other companies that Facebook has acquired over the years include:
Company Name | Date Acquired |
| RecRec | March 24, 2011 |
| DayTum | April 27, 2011 |
| Sofa | June 9, 2011 |
| MailRank | June 9, 2011 |
| Push Pop Press | August 2, 2011 |
| Friend.ly | October 10, 2011 |
| Strobe | November 8, 2011 |
| Gowalla | December 2, 2011 |
| Caffeinatedmind | February 20, 2012 |
| April 9, 2012 | |
| Tagtile | April 13, 2012 |
| Glancee | May 5, 2012 |
| Lightbox.com | May 15, 2012 |
| Karma | May 21, 2012 |
| Face.com | June 18, 2012 |
| Spool | July 14, 2012 |
| Acrylic Software | July 20, 2012 |
| Threadsy | August 24, 2012 |
| Atlas Solutions | February 28, 2013 |
| osmeta | March 2013 |
| Storylane (Mixtent) | March 2013 |
| Hot Studio | March 14, 2013 |
| Spaceport | April 23, 2013 |
| Parse | April 25, 2013 |
| Monoidics | July 18, 2013 |
| Jibbigo | August 12, 2013 |
| Onavo | October 13, 2013 |
| SportStream | December 17, 2013 |
| Little Eye Labs | January 8, 2014 |
| Branch | January 13, 2014 |
| February 19, 2014 | |
| Oculus VR | March 25, 2014 |
| Ascenta | March 27, 2014 |
| Salorix | April 14, 2014 |
| ProtoGeo Oy | April 24, 2014 |
| PrivateCore | August 7, 2014 |
| LiveRail | August 14, 2014 |
| WaveGroup Sound | August 26, 2014 |
| Wit.ai | January 6, 2015 |
| Quickfire Networks | January 8, 2015 |
| TheFind, Inc. | March 14, 2015 |
| Surreal Vision | May 26, 2015 |
| Endaga | October 3, 2015 |
| Pebbles | July 16, 2015 |
| MSQRD (Masquerade) | March 9, 2016 |
| Two Big Ears | May 23, 2016 |
| Nascent Objects | Sep 19, 2016 |
| Infiniled | October 10, 2016 |
| CrowdTangle | November 11, 2016 |
| Faciometrics | November 16, 2016 |
| Zurich Eye | November 2016 |
| Ozlo | July 31, 2017 |
| Fayteq AG | August 2017 |
| tbh | October 16, 2017 |
| Confirm | January 23, 2018 |
| Bloomsbury AI | July 2018 |
| Redkix | July 26, 2018 |
| Vidpresso | August 13, 2018 |
| Dreambit | Sep 2016 |
| Chainspace | February 2019 |
| GrokStyle | February 8, 2019 |
| Servicefriend | September 2019 |
| CTRL-labs | September 2019 |
| Packagd | September 2019 |
| Beat Games | November 2019 |
| PlayGiga | December 2019 |
| Sanzaru Games | February 2020 |
| Scape Technologies | February 2020 |
| Giphy | May 15, 2020 |
| Mapillary | June 18, 2020 |
| Ready at Dawn | June 22, 2020 |
| Lemnis Technologies | September 18, 2020 |
| Kustomer | November 30, 2020 |
| Downpour Interactive | April 30, 2021 |
| Unit 2 Games | June 04, 2021 |
| BigBox VR | June 11, 2021 |
| AI.Reverie | Oct 11, 2021 |
| Within | Oct 29, 2021 |
| Twisted Pixel Games | Nov 1, 2021 |
| Armature Studio | Oct 11, 2022 |
| Camouflaj | Oct 11, 2022 |
Why Has Facebook Made So Many Acquisitions?
This has been for several reasons, including:
Acquire New Technology
Facebook has acquired companies with advanced technology to integrate into its platform and improve its offerings, such as virtual reality company Oculus VR.
Expand Into New Markets
To gain access to new markets and user bases, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.
Acquire Talent
Gaining access to talented engineers, designers, and product managers to help further its development and growth.
Eliminate Competition
Facebook acquires companies that pose a potential threat to its business, such as social network, FriendFeed.
Add Complementary Services
Facebook has acquired companies that offer complementary services, such as Giphy, to enhance its platform and provide new features to users.
Diversify its Revenue Streams
By acquiring companies with different business models, Facebook has been able to diversify its revenue streams and reduce its dependence on advertising-based income.
Improve Security
Facebook acquires companies that specialize in security and privacy, such as PrivateCore. This enhances the protection of user data and improves the overall security of its platform.
Improve Artificial Intelligence
It has acquired companies that specialize in artificial intelligence and machine learning, such as Bloomsbury AI. This improves its ability to understand and analyze large amounts of data.
Acquire Valuable Intellectual Property
It acquires companies with valuable patents and other forms of intellectual property, such as Friendster, to bolster its legal position and protect its business.
Other reasons why Facebook has bought so many other companies include to:
- Increase user engagement.
- Advance virtual and augmented reality.
- Improve data analytics.
- To improve its advertising platform.
- Improve its e-commerce capabilities
- Improve its picture, audio, and video-sharing capabilities.
- To improve its payments and finance offerings.
- Improve its local commerce feature.
- Improve its language processing capabilities.
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Interested in Learning More about or Working for Facebook?
If so, check out our comprehensive Facebook Mission and Vision Statement Analysis for all the background info you need. Then take a look at our guide to the Facebook Interview Questions and the Brain Teaser Interview Questions From Google Apple And Facebook to make sure you ace the interview.
Or, if you want to know more about what companies own what other companies, let’s find out Who Owns Spotify, Who Owns Fox News, Who Owns Twitter, Who Owns Dreamworks, Who Owns Cash App, Who Owns Zillow, Who Owns Zelle, or Who Owns Netflix in 2023?
And What Does the Future Hold for Facebook and its Acquisitions?
Facebook will keep buying companies that help it grow its market share and bring in new talent and technology.
Acquisitions have worked for Facebook in the past, and there’s no reason to believe they won’t continue to do so in the future. There is also no reason to believe that Facebook has any plans to stop acquiring more companies any time soon.
So, there has never been a better time to form a company and sell it to Facebook!
