Facebook is changing its company name as it shifts its focus to the "metaverse" and confronts wide-ranging scrutiny of the real-world harms from its various platforms after a whistleblower leaked hundreds of internal documents.
Founder Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that
Facebook will change its corporate name to Meta,
effectively demoting Facebook's namesake service to being just one of the
company's subsidiaries, alongside Instagram and WhatsApp, rather than the
overarching brand.
The company formerly known as Facebook also said in a press release that it plans to begin trading under the stock ticker "MVRS" on December 1.
A rebranding could
be part of an effort to overhaul Facebook's reputation and turn the page
following a series of PR nightmares, including misinformation on its platforms,
content moderation failures and revelations about the negative effect its
products have on some users' mental health.
The name change, which was announced by
Zuckerberg during the company's virtual reality and augmented reality
conference Facebook Connect,
aligns with its growing focus on the metaverse, which refers to efforts to
combine virtual and augmented reality technologies in a new online realm.
"I've been thinking a lot about our identity as we begin this next chapter. Facebook is one of the most used products in the history of the world," Zuckerberg said on Thursday. "It is an iconic social media brand, but increasingly it just doesn't encompass everything that we do.
Facebook showed a series of concept videos
that highlighted its vision for metaverse, such as sending a holographic image
of yourself to a concert with a friend attending in real life, sitting around
virtual meeting tables with remote colleagues or playing immersive games with
friends. Facebook recently said it would hire 10,000 people in
Europe to build out the concept.
The name of Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp
will remain on the mobile applications and on website name. Facebook will still exists as one of the Meta services they offer.
Via: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/28/tech/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-keynote-announcements/index.html
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