1

Anthony Matricia
CST 300
24 January 2023

Foundations in Tech - Silicon Valley and Meta

The advancement of humanity is fueled by innovation. Innovators are constantly striving

to find new ways to improve our quality of life through methods such as convenience,

affordability/availability, and even luxury. One of the most common fields in which this

innovation occurs is technology. Whether it is computers, software, or robotics, organizations

will always find a way to capitalize on the benefits of technology. For example, companies such

as Meta (parent to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus), Twitter, Pinterest, and Alphabet

(parent to Google) all capitalize on the advancement of technology to connect the world through

engineering software and connecting them via networks. Other companies such as Hewlett-

Packard, AMD, Cisco, and Western Digital (parent to SanDisk) put a little more focus on

physical computers and their components. Lastly, we can also observe companies such as Apple,

Intel, eBay, Lockheed Martin, Salesforce, and Netflix, who tend to provide accompanying

services which go hand in hand with their software development. The previously listed

companies alone have combined for a total revenue of nearly one trillion dollars

($981,231,353,000) according to item 8 in each of their most recently filed annual 10-K reports

from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC 2022). Additionally, each of these

major tech companies have something in common: presence in Silicon Valley. All the listed

companies either have their headquarters based in Silicon Valley, or they have facilities with a

very strong involvement there. Overall, many of the biggest tech companies conduct the majority

of their operations in this location, and in this paper, I will discuss why it carries such a

significance in the field of technology.

 2

Meta Platforms, Inc. is a large tech company based in Menlo Park, CA. The company is a

parent to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Reality Labs (corporate successor to Oculus), and

more. Most of Meta’s success is credited to Facebook - a well-known social media platform with

an estimated 2.9 billion users and 1.98 daily active users. In fact, “Meta Platforms, Inc.” was

previously known as “Facebook, Inc.” up until it rebranded in October 2021. The first version of

Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard roommates. This initial

creation was a website called “TheFacebook”, and its purpose was to be a digital student

directory, containing photos and relatively personal information, for fellow Harvard students.

The website began growing rapidly, and it was later made available to all Ivy League colleges

and most universities in the USA and Canada. The company first moved to Silicon Valley (Palo

Alto, CA) in June 2004, and later shortened the name to just “Facebook” in 2005. Facebook first

became open to the public in September 2006, and within just over a year, it grew to be worth an

implied $15 billion at the time. By July 2010, Facebook had amassed 500 million users, with an

estimated half of them using the site daily. Following this, Facebook’s value shot to $41 billion,

and it became America’s third largest web company behind only Google and Amazon. In 2012,

Facebook reached one billion monthly active users, and was valued at $104 billion. The

company’s next move was acquiring Instagram for $1 billion, which they carried out that same

year. Instagram was a competing social networking app that faced struggles with autonomy and

control over their venture. As a result, Facebook Inc. offered to buy Instagram in exchange for

$1 billion and a promise that Instagram would remain independently managed. At the time, the

site had 30 million users, but today it has around 1.2 billion and an estimated company value of

$100 billion. Instagram headquarters is located in San Francisco, CA, which is part of Silicon

Valley. Similarly, both WhatsApp and Oculus headquarters are in Menlo Park, CA, which is also
 3

part of Silicon Valley. Facebook Inc. acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion, and Oculus for

more than $2 billion later that same year. Since then, WhatsApp is currently worth between $30

and $ billion, but Oculus has proved to be troublesome for Meta. With a rocky start due to

lawsuits and slow product launches, Oculus seems to still be a work in progress.

Mark Zuckerberg is the chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling shareholder of

Meta. With a net worth of $72.2 billion, he is credited for most of Facebook and Meta’s success.

Although Zuckerberg is seen as the face of Facebook, there are many other big players that made

the company’s success possible as well. For example, Facebook was originally co-founded by

Zuckerberg’s roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris

Hughes. Former COO Sherly Sandberg also played a huge part in Facebook’s development up

until she stepped down from the position in 2022. Before she joined Facebook in 2008, she was

vice president of global online sales and operations at Google, and today she remains on

Facebook’s board of directors. Others have contributed in more specific ways, such as Sam

Lessin’s profile design, Dirk Stoop’s photo-sharing software, and more. All these people

contributed to the growth and development of Facebook’s success in their own way.

Despite its success, Facebook has faced some major lawsuits and accusations over the

course of its development. The most known scandal was the Cambridge Analytica privacy

scandal, in which the personal information of Facebook users was harvested by third-party apps

without consent. The data from these tens of millions of users was then used for ad targeting

during the 2016 election. Facebook was fined £500,000 by the UK’s data protection watchdog,

and $5 billion later on by the FTC. Facebook paid the fines and began notifying users what third-

party apps could view or access their data. However, there are still privacy problems arising

today, with former Facebook employee Frances Haugen releasing internal documents with the
 4

Wall Street Journal in September 2021. Haugen later testified before Congress that Facebook

needed regulation because it values profits more than the safety of its users. Facebook looks to

improve their cybersecurity and protect the personal information of its users more in the future.

Overall, Meta has become fairly successful throughout its development, and its location

in Silicon Valley has definitely played a part in that. It is considered one of the “Big Five”

American information technology companies alongside Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and

Microsoft. Although it is the least profitable of the five, it is still impressive for a company

which focuses mostly on building free social media sites and profits almost strictly from

advertising to be on the same level as the big tech companies listed before. A common

denominator of the “Big Five” is how three out of the five companies have stationed their center

in Silicon Valley. This is mainly because it is the foundation and focal point of the tech industry.

I would like to work in Silicon Valley one day as well. I aim to work in fields such as

software engineering, cybersecurity, and game/app development. The main reason I want to

work in Silicon Valley is because of its vast network of people in tech. Although the cost of

living is very high, it is renown as the best place in America to find job opportunities and

network in the tech industry. I would like to work on innovative forms of technology such as AI,

algorithms, security, and more. I am passionate about software engineering because I enjoy

problem-solving and understanding the way things work in a computer. Cybersecurity is also

interesting to me because I believe it is extremely important in today’s day and age. Countless

organizations struggle with data breaches and attacks on networks, systems, and programs. As a

result, I believe the need for people with cybersecurity experience is extremely high. Lastly, I am

interested in game and mobile app development because ever since I was a kid, I have always

loved learning the way they are made. I have spent a lot of time on my own creating small scale
 5

games, and I have watched countless YouTube videos explaining how they are coded/built. Over

the course of my career, I hope to gain experience in all these fields, but in order to reach that

goal, I must fulfill my education aspirations as well.

My long-term goal is to obtain a Ph.D. in computer science while acquiring skills that

familiarize myself with the aforementioned fields of work. I spend a lot of free time building my

own personal skills because I understand that a lot of work is necessary in order to build a

diverse skillset. Skills that I work on understanding and improving include programming

languages, network and data security, data structures and algorithms, artificial intelligence,

virtual reality, and more. My core classes will help me by providing beneficial tools and

opportunities for me to take advantage of, and my electives will help me diversify and venture

out to either learn more specializations or fortify my skills in my existing ones. Here at CSUMB,

I feel that I will be provided with a solid foundation in computer science education, which I can

then continue to build on my own. This way, I can acquire skills necessary for a career in

computer science, while also improving more niche-specific skills on my own.

To adequately prepare for these goals, I have familiarized myself with related fields both

on my own and in my studies. Currently, my strongest hard skills are C++, Java, Assembly, MS

Office, and Object-Oriented Programming. My methodology of building new skills follows a

general categorization pattern. For example, to improve my specialization in AI programming, I

study Python, TensorFlow, SciPy, and NumPy. To improve my data skillset, I study SQL,

statistics and probability, data structures, and graphing. I work on my understanding of

cybersecurity through Linux, Kerberos, Splunk, and more. I am confident in both my own ability

to develop these skills, as well as my program’s ability to help provide me with tools and

education to advance them even further.

 6

Overall, I aim to build my portfolio through education and experience, and potentially

work in my desired fields over the course of my career in computer science. As a child I visited

San Francisco a lot and got to view many large tech facilities. I have always been amazed by the

technological advancements being made, and my goal is to one day be a part of that. The tech

industry is incredibly vast, with a large variety of different fields. I have found the fields which I

am most passionate about, and I will work towards my goals in them.

 7

References

About Silicon Valley, California, USA. (n.d.). Visit Silicon Valley. Retrieved January 8, 2023, from

https://visitsiliconvalley.org/about-silicon-valley/

BBC. (2018, October 25). Facebook fined £500,000 for Cambridge Analytica scandal. BBC News.

Retrieved January 15, 2023, from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45976300

Cable News Network. (2012, October 4). Facebook reaches one billion users. CNNMoney. Retrieved

January 14, 2023, from https://money.cnn.com/2012/10/04/technology/facebook-billion-users/

CBS Interactive. (2019, July 15). FTC to fine Facebook about $5 billion for user-privacy violations,

reports say. CBS News. Retrieved January 15, 2023, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ftc-

to-fine-facebook-5-billion-for-cambridge-analytica-user-privacy-bungles-

reports/#:~:text=FTC%20to%20fine%20Facebook%20about%20%245%20billion%20for,millio

ns%20of%20people%2C%20according%20to%20several%20media%20reports.

Duffy, C. (2022, February 5). Facebook has successfully overhauled its business before. this time will be

harder. CNN. Retrieved January 14, 2023, from https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/05/tech/meta-

facebook-

crossroads/index.html#:~:text=In%20the%20first%20three%20months%20of%202014%2C%20

its,called%20Meta%2C%20finds%20itself%20at%20a%20similar%20crossroads.

Edgar: Company filings. SEC Emblem. (2022, July 22). Retrieved January 14, 2023, from

https://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch
 8

Fowler, G. (2022, December 2). How Silicon Valley is transforming: 5 strategies for tech. Forbes.

Retrieved January 14, 2023, from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/2022/12/01/how-silicon-valley-

is-transforming-5-strategies-for-tech/?sh=500165c33583

Introducing Meta: A Social Technology Company. Meta. (2021, October 28). Retrieved January 8, 2023,

from https://about.fb.com/news/2021/10/facebook-company-is-now-meta/

Meisenzahl, M., & Canales, K. (2021, November 3). The 16 biggest scandals Mark Zuckerberg faced

over the last decade as he became one of the world's Most powerful people. Business Insider.

Retrieved January 14, 2023, from https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-scandals-

last-decade-while-running-facebook-2019-12

Ngak, C. (2012, November 6). Facebook to acquire Instagram for $1 Billion. CBS News. Retrieved

January 14, 2023, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-to-acquire-instagram-for-1-

billion/

Rodriguez, S. (2021, October 28). Facebook changes company name to Meta. CNBC. Retrieved January

8, 2023, from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/28/facebook-changes-company-name-to-

meta.html

Thorbecke, C. (2019, November 13). Facebook says government requests for user data have reached

all-time high. ABC News. Retrieved January 8, 2023, from

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/facebook-government-requests-user-data-reached-time-

high/story?id=66981424#:~:text=Facebook%20said%20it%20produced%20data%20for%2088%

25%20of,2013%2C%20Facebook%20compli