Meta Platforms is the parent of Facebook and adopted its current name in 2021.
Facebook, Inc. changed its corporate name to Meta Platforms on October 28, 2021. The rebrand reflected chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s stated focus on building the metaverse, a network of immersive digital environments and services.
The company’s major platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. These products give Meta a very large advertising business, which has historically supplied most of its revenue. Meta also develops virtual- and augmented-reality hardware through its Reality Labs division.
The name change applied to the parent company, not to the Facebook social network itself. Facebook remains a product and brand under Meta. Investors continued to value Meta among the world’s largest public companies because of its user base, advertising reach, cash generation, and artificial-intelligence investments.