Meta Platforms, founded in 2004 as Facebook, changed its corporate name to Meta Platforms in 2021.
Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Harvard students founded Facebook in 2004. The social-networking service expanded internationally and later acquired Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. In October 2021, the parent company announced the name Meta Platforms to emphasize its focus on building the metaverse and other technologies.
The company’s principal social platforms remained Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp after the corporate rebranding. Meta’s market capitalization reflects the combined expectations surrounding advertising, social media, messaging, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.
A common mix-up is treating Meta as a replacement name for Facebook itself. Facebook remains the name of the social network, while Meta Platforms is the parent company. The company’s stock ticker also changed from FB to META in 2022.