Facebook changed its corporate name to Meta in 2021. Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebrand on October 28, 2021, during the company’s Facebook Connect event.
The change applied to the parent company, which had been called Facebook, Inc. since 2004. The Facebook social network kept its name, as did major products such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Meta was intended to represent a broader corporate focus beyond one social-media platform.
The rebrand was closely tied to Zuckerberg’s metaverse strategy, which emphasized virtual and augmented reality, digital spaces, and new forms of online interaction. Meta’s Reality Labs division became a central part of that vision, alongside the company’s established social apps.
A common mix-up is saying that “Facebook became Meta” as an app. The corporate parent changed its name; Facebook itself remained the name of the social-networking service. The company’s stock ticker also changed from FB to META in 2022.