Meta Platforms was called Facebook before it adopted the Meta name in 2021.
The company announced the corporate rebrand on October 28, 2021. The new name reflected chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's emphasis on building the metaverse, while Facebook remained the name of the company's flagship social-networking service.
Facebook began at Harvard University in 2004 and expanded to other universities before becoming available more broadly. Meta's corporate portfolio also includes Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Reality Labs.
The rebrand did not erase the Facebook product or turn the company into a new public corporation. Meta Platforms retained its existing corporate history and changed its Nasdaq ticker from FB to META in 2022.