Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg announced the social media giant will change the name of its holding company to Meta, to focus on building a metaverse.
The name change was announced at the Facebook Connect augmented and virtual reality conference on Thursday when Zuckerberg described his vision for the metaverse as “a digital world constructed on top of our own that includes virtual reality headgear and augmented reality.”
The re-branding follows a series of negative news reports about Facebook, based on documents leaked by an ex-employee and whistleblower, Frances Haugen.
What Zuckerberg is saying about Meta
Zuckerberg said the metaverse is the next frontier in connecting people, just like social networking was when it first started. The new name reflects that over time, users will not need to use Facebook to use the company’s other services.
“Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future,” Zuckerberg said. “We believe the metaverse will be the successor of the mobile internet,”
“All of our products, including our apps, now share a new vision: to help bring the metaverse to life. And now we have a name that reflects the breadth of what we do.
“The word “meta” comes from the Greek word meaning “beyond”. For me, it symbolizes that there is always more to build, and there is always a next chapter to the story. Ours is a story that started in a dorm room and grew beyond anything we imagined; into a family of apps that people use to connect with one another, to find their voice, and to start businesses, communities, and movements that have changed the world.”
“The metaverse will not be created by one company. It will be built by creators and developers making new experiences and digital items that are interoperable and unlock a massively larger creative economy than the one constrained by today’s platforms and their policies,” he added.
What you should know
- The change does not apply to its individual platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, only the parent company that owns them.
- Facebook, as well as applications like Instagram, WhatsApp, and the virtual reality startup Oculus, will be part of the new holding company, Meta.
- In a blog post, the company stated that it plans to begin trading on December 1 under the new stock ticker, MVRS.