What Meta owns: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads and Quest explained

Many people use several Meta products every day without thinking of them as one company. Meta Platforms, led by founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, owns some of the world’s most popular apps and a growing range of hardware. Here is what each one does.

The family of apps

Meta says more than 3 billion people use at least one of its apps every day, making it one of the largest communication networks in history.

Facebook

The original social network, launched in 2004. People use it to share posts, photos and videos, join groups, follow pages, buy and sell on Marketplace and organise events. It has more than 3 billion monthly users worldwide, and India is its largest market by number of users.

Instagram

A photo and video app founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and bought by Facebook in 2012 for about $1 billion. It is known for Stories, Reels (short videos) and influencers. Instagram is especially popular with younger users and with brands.

A messaging app founded by Jan Koum and Brian Acton in 2009 and bought by Facebook in 2014 for about $19 billion. Messages are end-to-end encrypted by default. WhatsApp has more than 3 billion monthly users and is the most widely used messaging app in India, where businesses also use it to talk to customers and accept payments.

Messenger

Facebook’s messaging service, split into a separate app in 2014. It is used for chats, voice and video calls.

Threads

A text-based social app launched in July 2023 as a rival to X (formerly Twitter). It is linked to Instagram accounts, which helped it gain 100 million sign-ups within five days. It has continued to grow since.

Hardware: Reality Labs

Meta’s hardware division is called Reality Labs.

Quest headsets

Meta bought the virtual-reality company Oculus, co-founded by Palmer Luckey, in 2014. Its Quest headsets are among the best-selling VR devices in the world, used for gaming, fitness and virtual meetings. Quest headsets can also blend virtual objects into the real world (mixed reality).

Ray-Ban Meta glasses

Made with EssilorLuxottica, the owner of Ray-Ban, these smart glasses have cameras, speakers and microphones and connect to the Meta AI assistant. They have sold far better than many expected. In 2025 Meta added a model with a small built-in display.

Meta AI

The Meta AI assistant is built into Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Meta’s glasses. It is powered by models developed by Meta, including the Llama family and the newer Muse models from Meta Superintelligence Labs, released in October 2026.

How Meta makes money

Almost all of Meta’s revenue comes from advertising. Businesses pay to show ads to people based on their interests and activity. Reality Labs has lost large amounts of money as Meta invests in the future of computing, and Meta is now spending heavily on AI data centres as well.

Regulation

Meta’s size has attracted attention from regulators:

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission sued to force Meta to sell Instagram and WhatsApp; in November 2025 a federal judge ruled in Meta’s favour.
In Europe, Meta must follow the Digital Markets Act and data-protection rules.
In India, Meta must comply with the IT Rules and has faced questions over WhatsApp’s privacy policy.

Who runs Meta?

Zuckerberg controls a majority of Meta’s voting shares through a special class of stock, which means he has the final say on the company’s direction.

The big picture

From a college website to a family of apps and devices used by billions, Meta has become central to how people communicate. Its next chapter depends on AI and on whether glasses and headsets become the next major computing platform.