Facebook Changes Company Name To Meta

Social media giant Facebook announced Thursday that it changed its company name to Meta. The name Facebook will remain on its social media platform.

However, Meta will take over everywhere else. In addition, the stock ticker “FB” will now go with its new name MVRS beginning December 1. 

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New Company Name Meta Refers To The Metaverse

The company announced the company name change during the Facebook Connect augmented and virtual reality conference.

The new name reflects its growing preference to go beyond social media. The new name Meta describes its vision for working and playing in a virtual world. 

CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave the announcement during the conference. “Today we are seen as a social media company, but in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started,” he said. 

‘Metaverse Aims To Reach A BIllion People’

Earlier in July, then-Facebook announced the creation of a team that would start work on the metaverse. By September, the company said they will promote Andrew Bosworth from hardware division head to Chief Technology Officer by 2022.

Last Monday, Facebook announced that beginning the fourth quarter, its hardware division Reality Labs will have its own reporting section. 

In a letter published Thursday, Zuckerberg hopes the new direction will reach billions. “Our hope is that within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers,” he wrote. 

Meta To Ramp Up Efforts in VR and AR

Over the years, Facebook increased its efforts in developing its tech hardware. It previously introduced a line of Portal video call devices.

It also launched the Ray-Ban Stories and launched the Oculus VR headsets. Throughout it all, the company promised that augmented and virtual reality will remain a key strategy moving forward. 

In addition, Meta said it will spend around t $10 billion over the next year developing technologies that can help build the metaverse.

Zuckerberg even demonstrated some of Meta’s plans for the metaverse. It included a Pixar-like animation of software the company hopes to build someday.

It included a simulation of users hanging out in space via cartoon-like versions of themselves. Zuckerberg used part of the demo to accuse other tech firms of stifling innovation with high developer fees.

However, he also clarified that the development will take around five to ten years at least. The company expects “to invest many billions of dollars for years to come before the metaverse reaches scale,” Zuckerberg added. He hopes that the metaverse will soon succeed the mobile internet. 

Rebranding Comes Amid Damaging Reports

Facebook’s rebranding to a new company name comes amid heavy fire from various sectors. A former employee turned into a whistleblower and released internal documents.

These papers showed that Facebook is aware of the harm its services cause. However, the company seemed to ignore these threats as they bring in increased revenue. 

Watch the CNET video featuring everything Facebook revealed about the Metaverse:

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What do you think of the new name Meta? In addition, what do you think of Facebook’s decision to rebrand its company name to Meta? Will this change anything for the company?

Let us know what you think. Share your comments in the comments section below.