facebook name change

Is Facebook rebranding? If you’re a fan of tech firms and tech news, you won’t believe the latest happening in Silicon Valley. Although there’s been a lot of talk about Facebook getting a new name, most people were pretty skeptical that the rumors would ever turn into reality. A few months after the buzz started, here we are! Meet Meta, Facebook’s new corporate name. 

When the latest rumor appeared last week, Facebook’s spokesperson didn’t confirm it. Instead, they just announced that Facebook doesn’t comment on speculation and that we’ll have to wait and see whether the so-called metaverse will become a reality. Although no one trusted the initial source that claimed it had direct knowledge in the platform’s business practices, it turns out that Zuckerberg has been planning a name change and rebranding for a while.

Mark announced the news at the 2021 Connect conference on October 28. The initial concept of the metaverse company is a virtual universe where people will live a parallel life. This is a challenging concept for most people to grasp, especially since it’s a young branch that still needs exploring. The idea comes from Neal Stephenson, the person who first introduced the term metaverse. According to Stephenson, it’s a place people visit to run away from the real world. 

Is this Mark’s desperate move to save the social media company from the reputational damage it went through during the past few years? Unfortunately, Facebook went through several major scandals in the past few years. Three years ago, the network got caught in the infamous Cambridge Analytica data scandal, and the founder, Zuckerberg, had to testify in front of Congress for harvesting the data of 87 million Facebook users. Frances Haugen is the whistleblower who leaked internal documents and started the entire scandal. 

Facebook is one of the very rare massive companies to go through a name change. Philip Morris changed their name to Altria Group in 2003, but people still associate the brand with tobacco. Likewise, AirTran became the new name of ValuJet after the company went through a nasty scandal about one of their planes crashing. Still, people remembered them by their old name and didn’t forget about the scandals. So If this is Facebook’s way to escape the antitrust scrutiny and hate speech, it might not be the best solution. 

Facebook Inc. is the parent company of other social messaging services like WhatsApp and Instagram. So should we expect these two networks to also hop on the virtual reality trend, or will they stay the same? Only time will tell!

The Future of Facebook

Now that Facebook has become Meta, what can we expect from this social network in the future? According to the founder, the company won’t stop being a social media platform, but it will expand into various fields, becoming a higher level of social technology. Ever since he first mentioned his vision about a metaverse in July this year, the world has been trying to guess his next moves.

Facebook’s company, Oculus, recently released VR headsets that were probably a hint of the changes to come. The metaverse will merge augmented and virtual reality, probably delivering even more advanced VR and AR products. 

During summer 2020, the media platform announced major news that pointed to significant changes in the structure and Facebook’s shift towards more advanced technology in the digital spaces. The network proudly assigned Andrew Bosworth, previously head of AR and VR, as their new chief technology officer. They also confirmed that the company is set to hire 10,000 European employees as a part of the Meta project. 

Facebook isn’t the only company that is looking to add more diverse services to its portfolio. Google is just one of the tech companies that has expanded their products into various industries, including providing internet services for areas without coverage, producing phones, speakers, and much more. But, the good thing is that the famous mobile internet browser has stayed the same, so our hopes are that Facebook will follow its lead. 

Should you stop working on your Facebook growth and turn your attention to other social networks? There’s no need to worry about your business; it’s still safe with Facebook. Just keep working hard on your content, keep advertising on the platform, and expand your brand. 

Conclusion

What does the Facebook name change mean for the company? Should we all start saying goodbye to the social media app as we know it and expect it to become a VR space where people will have a second life? Although it’s too early to tell, our guess is that Zuckerberg will only expand its empire without ruining the Facebook experience for 2 billion users.
The popular search engine Google is an excellent example that a single company can expand its services into many fields. This might be Facebook’s attempt to become even bigger, get into the virtual reality industry, and start another successful company.

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