Facebook's parent company changed its corporate name to Meta Platforms in 2021. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the change on October 28, 2021, and the new corporate identity took effect later that year.
The rebranding separated the parent company from the Facebook social-network brand. Meta continued to own Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, while presenting the metaverse as a major long-term area of investment. The company’s stock ticker changed from FB to META in 2022.
The name change did not rename Facebook itself; Facebook remained the name of the social-networking service. This distinction is important when discussing market capitalization: investors value Meta Platforms as the parent corporation, whose businesses include social media advertising, messaging, virtual reality, and other technology projects.