There’ve been numerous arguments going on on various online platforms as to who really owns Facebook. If you’ve had time to look at the Facebook story, you will know the Facebook dream all started at Harvard University by some computer science students. The doubt as to who owns Facebook now all started in 2008 when Google publicly announced its intention to purchase it for $25 billion. So in this write-up, we will look at who really owns Facebook. Is Facebook owned by Google or China?
So is Facebook owned by Google or China? Facebook is not owned by Google nor is it owned by China. Facebook and Google and two different companies and apps. Facebook, which is now known as Meta is neither owned by a Chinese nor affiliated with a China company. It is an online social media and network service platform founded by an American, Mark Zuckerberg.
Google is known to own over 200 platforms, and companies, but Facebook happens not to be part of them. Some of the platforms or companies owned by Google include AdSense, Android, Google Chrome, Google Drive, YouTube, Google Play, Google Map, and many others.
There was a press conference held between both the CEO of Google and Facebook, that’s Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg respectively on a purchase deal, but this deal didn’t go through well. And since then Mark Zuckerberg still owns the largest share on Facebook.
And talking of China, Facebook itself has been banned in China, so how possible will they ban such technology if they own it? So Facebook is not affiliated with any Chinese company or owned by any Chinese.
What Companies Does Facebook Own?
On October 28, 2021, the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg made an announcement about its new name, Meta. Facebook is now a Meta Platform or Meta in short. Facebook has grown from being a communication app for university students to a mega-company.
Currently, the Meta platform has over 200 companies as I stated earlier on. But out of these good number of companies, only a few of them are well-known to the public. The well-known companies owned by Facebook include;
- Messenger
- Oculus
- FriendFeed
- Ascenta
- LiveRail
- ProtoGeo
- Onavo
- Giphy
- Mapillary
- Atlas Solution
- Parse
- Redkix
- Tbh
- CTRL Laboratories, and many others
What Companies Does Google Own?
Google is an American technology company, and widely known for its search engine, Google search. Just like Facebook, Google was also founded during the university days of Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They happened to be Ph.D. students at Stanford University, as at the time they founded Google.
Founded on September 4, 1998, but got public in the year 2004. Aside from the Google search, Google is also well-known for its numerous products, and services.
Some of the popular products and services of Google include;
- Google Chrome
- Chromebook
- Google Doc
- Google Drive
- Google Forms
- Gmail
- Google Authenticator
- Google Classroom
- Google Fonts
- Google Play
- Google Photos
- Google Play Games
- Google Workspace
- Hangout
- Keep
- Search
- Pixel
- Google Translate
- Travel
- YouTube, and many others
Are Facebook and Google Related?
Facebook is a social network, with other features in performing totally different tasks from socializing. Google also comprises a whole lot of products and services but is well-known for its search engine. Looking at their nature, they are two different platforms but do have some similar features.
Let’s have a look at some of their similarities;
- Advertising and publishing
- Social networking
Advertising and publishing
There are individuals who work full-time as advertisers on either Facebook or Google, or even both. These two platforms give you the chance to market your product or service to a specific target or audience at a charge.
Google has Google Ads, where advertisers create campaigns for their products or services, whiles Facebook also uses Ads Manager. In the creation of these campaigns, you get to select the geo-location of the preferred audience, the age range, the sex, the behavior, and many other features.
You get to pay based on the number of people that see, click, or take a specific action on your ads.
And as advertisers are creating ads, there’s an opportunity for publishers to also make a good amount of money, but allowing Google or Facebook to display ads on their content, be it video content or written content. These publishers also get to be paid per the number of people that see, click or take a specific action on the content that the ads were displayed.
Social networking
Facebook has various features and hence does several kinds of stuff. But in all, Facebook is well-known for social networking. Facebook enables its users to connect with friends and relatives. And right on the platform, you can choose to have a live chat with another user or leave a message behind.
There’s an option that you can have both audio and video call with other users. Users are allowed to also create a community for a specific group of people. Brands, be it business or personalities, also get to create pages for their respective brands, where they get to communicate with their followers.
Google also has a few chat applications like hangout, where you get to communicate with other users either via chat, audio call, or video call. Google used to have Google plus (Google+), which was similar to Facebook. And with Google+, users had the chance to update the feeds for the followers to comment or react to it.
YouTube, which happens to be one of the biggest platforms of Google, has a comment session where subscribers and users of the platform get to communicate and socialize.
How are Facebook and China Related?
It’s surprising to hear people think or wonder if Facebook is owned by a Chinese, or if it’s a Chinese company. Facebook isn’t a Chinese company, but rather an American company, and it’s owned by an American.
Facebook and many other social network platforms have been banned in China. Even Google search is not used in China. And if you’re to access any of them, you will need and VPN to do so. But they’ve got alternative platforms that got the same features, so that’s what they are stacked to.
Qzone is a social networking website and works just like Facebook. So it’s far more popular in China than Facebook. WeChat is the WhatsApp alternate instant messaging platform in China. China also has Sina Weibo, which also works just like Twitter. Bilibili, which is known as B Site in short is also a YouTube alternate platform in China. Baidu is also China’s most used search engine, as Google is not widely used there.
So in short, China has gotten alternate platforms for all the popular American platforms. The list of platforms can go on and on. There are alternate platforms for Instagram, Amazon, Quora, and many other American platforms.
Hence, there’s no relationship between China and Facebook.
Conclusion
Facebook, now known as Meta is not owned by Google, nor is it owned by China or any Chinese. Facebook was founded by an American, Mark Zuckerberg, with his University roommates, and Mark still holds the highest shares in the company. Though there were initial plans for Google to purchase Facebook, plans didn’t go through successfully. Facebook has over 200 companies or platforms to its name, the same as Google. Google and Facebook have no relationship, but there are some similarities in their various platforms.
More Relevant Resources on Social Media
- Why Does Facebook Delete my Friends? – The reasons why Facebook might delete your friends are varied and not always clear.
- Can I Use TikTok Logo? – You’re free to use the TikTok logo on your project or website without any copyright infringement only if you don’t claim ownership of the logo or try selling it.
