Meta Platforms, a major market-cap technology company, adopted its current name in 2021.
Facebook, Inc. announced the change to Meta Platforms, Inc. on October 28, 2021. The rebranding reflected the company’s intention to develop the metaverse, a broad concept involving persistent digital environments, virtual interaction, and immersive computing.
The corporate name changed, but Facebook remained the name of the company’s social-networking service. Meta also continued to operate Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. This distinction is a common source of confusion: Meta is the parent company, while Facebook is one of its major products.
The rebranding followed years of expansion beyond the original Facebook website. Facebook had been founded in 2004 and became a public company in 2012. Meta’s name therefore belongs to the later corporate identity, not to the company’s original launch.