Meta Platforms owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp and adopted its current corporate name in 2021.
The company was founded as Facebook in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. It changed its corporate name from Facebook, Inc. to Meta Platforms, Inc. in October 2021, while Facebook remained the name of one of its major social-networking products.
Meta’s family of apps includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. The company also develops virtual- and augmented-reality products through its Reality Labs division, including Quest headsets. Advertising remains a central source of revenue across its social platforms.
The corporate rebrand is often confused with a product rename. Facebook did not become Meta; the parent company changed its name, while Facebook continued as an app and platform. Market capitalization for Meta therefore represents the parent company’s combined businesses, not just the Facebook service.