Which company owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp under the ticker META?

Meta Platforms owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp under the ticker META.

The company was originally called Facebook, Inc., reflecting its flagship social network. In October 2021, it changed its corporate name to Meta Platforms to emphasize its broader ambitions in virtual and augmented reality, while Facebook remained the name of its social-media service.

Meta is one of the world’s largest publicly traded technology companies by market capitalization. Its major business is digital advertising across Facebook, Instagram, and other services. Reality Labs, the division behind Quest virtual-reality headsets, is a separate reporting segment.

A common mix-up is treating Meta and Facebook as interchangeable company names. Facebook is both a product and the former corporate name; Meta Platforms is the company whose shares trade under META.