Zuckerberg announcing the name change. Photo: AP
Founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced Thursday that Facebook is changing its name to Meta to reflect its growing focus on the metaverse; and he explained why.
A metaverse is described as a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users. It encapsulates the whole essence of a brave new world where innovation through technology drives human activities.
“From now on, we’re going to be the metaverse first, not Facebook first. Our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything we’re doing today, let alone the future,” Zuckerberg said at the company’s annual Connect conference.
In a blog post, Zuckerberg said the name Meta comes from Greek word which means “beyond.”
“For me, it symbolizes that there is always more to build, and there is always a next chapter to the story,” he said.
In essence, Zuckerberg is telling the world to get ready for more innovations, more consumer satisfaction and more opportunities. The name change is in keeping with the company’s culture of constant innovation.
The company said it is not changing its corporate structure. It will trade under the ticker symbol MVRS.
Facebook and its apps Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp will be housed in a separate division from Facebook Reality Labs, which makes the company’s augmented and virtual reality products, the company said earlier this week.
It is yet to established if the name change has to do with the public image bashing received by Facebook recently after an ex-staff spilled the beans on dirty trade secrets of the social media company. The trade secret projected Facebook as prioritizing profits over people’s well-being, especially the youths.
But Zuckerberg was quick to counter that the negative news about Facebook “had nothing to bear on this.”
“Even though I think some people might want to make that connection, I think that’s sort of a ridiculous thing,” he said. “If anything, I think that this is not the environment that you would want to introduce a new brand in,” he told The Verge, an American tech blog.
“We’ve gone from desktop to web to phones, from text to photos to video, but this isn’t the end of the line,” Zuckerberg said. “The next platform and medium will be even more immersive and embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it, and we call this the metaverse.”
