Meta Platforms owns Instagram and Facebook and changed its name from Facebook, Inc. to Meta Platforms in 2021.
The rebranding was announced on October 28, 2021. Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp remained products within the company, while Meta became the corporate name and emphasized the company's interest in virtual and augmented reality.
Meta is one of the world's largest publicly traded technology companies by market capitalization. Its main business has historically been digital advertising, supported by the enormous audiences of Facebook and Instagram.
The company was founded as TheFacebook in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Harvard students. The corporate-name change did not rename the Facebook social network itself, which remains a separate product and is a common source of confusion.