Facebook’s 2004 founding created the social-network business that later became the parent Meta Platforms.
Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Harvard students launched Facebook in February 2004. The service began as a social network for Harvard students before expanding to other universities and eventually the general public. Its advertising model turned a large user network into a major source of revenue.
Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, adding influential mobile communication and photo-sharing platforms. In 2021, the parent company changed its name from Facebook, Inc. to Meta Platforms, Inc., signaling a broader focus on virtual and augmented reality alongside social networking.
The corporate name and product name are therefore easy to mix up. Facebook remains the name of a major social-networking service, while Meta Platforms is the publicly traded parent company. Market-capitalization comparisons generally refer to Meta Platforms when discussing the company listed under the ticker META.