Meta is the U.S. tech company that owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and more, rebranded from Facebook, Inc. in 2021 to reflect a bigger bet on the “metaverse.”

What “Meta” Is

  • Meta Platforms, Inc. is an American multinational technology company based in Menlo Park, California.
  • It’s one of the major “Big Tech” firms, alongside Google (Alphabet), Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and others.
  • The company was originally founded as TheFacebook in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and classmates, then became Facebook, Inc., and later rebranded to Meta in October 2021.

What Meta Owns and Does

  • Social apps: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Threads are all part of Meta.
  • Business model: Most of Meta’s revenue comes from digital advertising across these platforms.
  • Future focus: Through its Reality Labs division, Meta invests in virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D virtual spaces aimed at building a broader “metaverse.”

Why They Changed the Name

  • In 2021, the company switched from “Facebook, Inc.” to “Meta Platforms, Inc.” to signal a strategic shift toward building the metaverse and future immersive technologies.
  • The rebrand also came after years of controversy around privacy, misinformation, and the social impact of Facebook, and was partly seen as an attempt to refresh the company’s public image.

Recent Context and News Flavor

  • Meta remains central to online social life for billions of people through its messaging and social apps.
  • At the same time, it faces legal and public scrutiny, including lawsuits and verdicts related to children’s safety and the impact of its platforms on young users.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.