Meta Platforms was originally called Facebook before changing its corporate name to Meta in 2021.
Facebook, Inc. announced the corporate name change to Meta Platforms, Inc. on October 28, 2021. The rebranding signaled chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s emphasis on building the metaverse, a collection of interconnected virtual and augmented-reality experiences.
The company retained Facebook as the name of its social-networking service. Its other major platforms include Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. These products remained central to the company’s advertising business after the corporate reorganization.
The name change did not create a new public company from nothing. Meta Platforms continued the same listed corporation, and its stock ticker changed from FB to META in 2022. This is why market-capitalization histories may refer to Facebook in earlier years and Meta Platforms in later ones, even though they describe the same corporate successor.