Facebook is changing its name, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has announced.
The parent company will now be known as “Meta”, he said. It will also get a new logo, with a blue “M”.
The change is an attempt to bring focus to its work on the “metaverse”, as it refers to a host of augmented and virtual reality features that it claims will be the future of social networking.
But it might also be an attempt to shift focus away from its ongoing controversies.
“Over time, I hope that we’re seen as a metaverse company,” he said. “And I want to anchor identity on what we’re building towards.”
Facebook the app will keep its name, and Meta will refer only to the parent company that also owns other apps such as WhatsApp and Instagram. As such, it is similar to the rebrand of Google into Alphabet – which kept the name for the search engine, but changed the branding of the umbrella company in recognition of its other work.
“From now on, we’re going to be metaverse first, not Facebook first,” Mr Zuckerberg said. He suggested that Facebook app and branding will be removed from other apps, and that it will instead look to push the new Meta name.
In recent years, Facebook has looked to push that name even in its other apps, including a rebrand to WhatsApp and Instagram that added “from Facebook” to both of their names in 2019. Comments from Mr Zuckerberg suggested such changes will be reversed, and those will instead be advertised as being from Meta.
Such changes – as well as the dropping of the Facebook brand more broadly – are likely in recognition of the rapidly dropping reputation of the Facebook brand in recent months and years. The company has faced numerous privacy scandals and other criticism, and recent weeks have brought damaging leaks from a whistleblower who revealed deep division at Facebook.
Mr Zuckerberg announced his company’s new name during a 90-minute presentation in which he argued that the metaverse will be the future of both his company and the internet.
He showed how through the use of virtual reality goggles and smart glasses, users will be able to add virtual objects to the real world. They could hang out with friends as well as appearing in real meetings as holograms, he suggested.
Instead, the presentation largely focused on relatively modest promises for the future: that people would be able to visit a virtual recreation of their home, for instance, or play chess against people across the world over the internet on a virtual chessboard that was superimposed on the real world.
The only concrete announcement beyond the name change was a new, more expensive virtual reality headset named “Cambria”. Even that had scant details and will not be available until next year.
The other big part of the keynote today was the major rebrand from Facebook to Meta. Zuckerberg said the name best represents what it’s working towards, being a metaverse company.
As part of this, it’s 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. I’m proud to announce our company is now Meta.
The existing apps, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. all remain with Meta being the umbrella they all live under instead of Facebook.
Check out all the details in the full keynote below and Meta’s press release here.
