Meta Platforms was known as Facebook before its 2021 rebrand.
The company announced the name change to Meta in October 2021. The new name reflected its growing focus on virtual and augmented reality, particularly through its Reality Labs division, while Facebook remained the name of the social-networking service.
Facebook was launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Harvard students. It expanded from a college networking site into a global platform, later acquiring Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
The rebrand created two names that are easy to confuse. Meta Platforms is the publicly traded parent company, whereas Facebook is one of its major products. The corporate name is also distinct from Meta’s family of apps, which includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.