As part of the social media giant’s rebranding, Facebook has changed its corporate name to Meta.
Facebook explained that the new name will allow the company to broaden its reach into areas such as virtual reality (VR) without limiting it to social media.
The name is only applicable to the parent company and will not be used for the individual platforms i.e., Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.
The restructuring has come about following a series of events that have been damaging to the company including the leaked documents by Frances Haugen — an ex-employee at Facebook.
Frances accused the company of prioritizing “profits over safety”.
This is not the first a company has decided to restructure as Google in 2015, restructured the company naming its parent firm Alphabet. It must be noted though that the name has not caught on.
Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement of the new name while unveiling the company’s plans to develop a “metaverse”. Metaverse is supposed to be a virtual world where users can indulge in games, work, and communication in a virtual environment, often using VR headsets.
Zuckerberg said the existing brand was unable to “possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future”, and needed to change. In a virtual conference, he added, “Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we’re building towards. We’re now looking at and reporting on our business as two different segments, one for our family of apps, and one for our work on future platforms. And as part of this, it is time for us to adopt a new company brand to encompass everything that we do, to reflect who we are and what we hope to build.”
A new sign was also unveiled at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Thursday, replacing the previous “Like” logo representing a thumbs up with a blue infinity shape.
Zuckerberg added that the new name reflects that as time passes, users will not require using Facebook to access the company’s other services.
The term “meta” comes from the Greek word meaning “beyond”.
To outsiders, a metaverse may appear like a version of VR, but some people are of the opinion that it could be the future of the internet.
Instead of using a computer, users in a metaverse will be using a headset to enter a virtual world connecting various different digital environments.
Facebook announced that the company intends to start trading its shares from 1 December under the new stock ticker MVRS.
