Meta Platforms operates the social networks Facebook and Instagram under one corporate group.
Meta Platforms is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It also develops Messenger, Quest virtual-reality hardware, and other products through its Family of Apps and Reality Labs divisions. This broad portfolio helps explain why Meta has ranked among the world's largest technology companies by market capitalization.
Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for about $1 billion. At the time, Instagram was a rapidly growing photo-sharing service with a small team. The acquisition gave Facebook control of a major mobile-social platform, which later became one of the most widely used apps worldwide.
Meta is not the same thing as Facebook, although Facebook remains one of its products. The corporate name changed in 2021 to signal a wider strategy, while the individual services retained their established names. Market capitalization refers to Meta's publicly traded parent-company shares.