Meta Platforms adopted its corporate name in 2021 while remaining a major publicly traded company.
Facebook, Inc. announced the change to Meta Platforms, Inc. on October 28, 2021. The rebranding reflected the company’s stated interest in building the metaverse, a term used for interconnected virtual and augmented-reality experiences. The company’s social-networking products, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, kept their individual names.
Meta’s corporate name change did not create a new stock listing from scratch. The company continued trading on the Nasdaq, later changing its stock ticker from FB to META in June 2022.
The company is often confused with Facebook because Facebook remains both a product name and the name of the original social network. Meta Platforms is the legal corporate parent. Its market capitalization fluctuates with the share price and investor expectations about advertising, messaging, and future technology businesses.