Meta Platforms was founded under the original name TheFacebook. Mark Zuckerberg launched the website in February 2004 with fellow Harvard students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.
The service initially targeted Harvard students before expanding to other universities and eventually to users more broadly. Its original web address was TheFacebook.com, and the company later shortened its public name to Facebook.
This detail is different from the 2021 corporate name change. Facebook, the social-network product, became part of a company renamed Meta Platforms in October 2021. The original founding name refers to the early company and website, not the later corporate identity.
Meta's business now includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Reality Labs. Its market capitalization therefore reflects a much broader collection of businesses than the college-focused service that began in 2004.