Among the world's largest companies by market capitalization, Meta Platforms operates Facebook and Instagram.
Meta Platforms changed its corporate name from Facebook, Inc. in October 2021. The new name reflected the company's effort to develop a broader collection of social, messaging, virtual-reality, and augmented-reality products rather than being identified with one service.
Facebook remains the company's flagship social network, while Instagram is a photo- and video-sharing service acquired by Facebook in 2012. Meta also owns WhatsApp and Messenger, two major messaging products, and develops virtual-reality hardware and software through Reality Labs.
The name change can cause confusion between the parent company and its best-known platform. Facebook is the social network; Meta Platforms is the publicly traded corporation. The company was originally founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.