As part of its major re-brand, Facebook has changed its corporate name to Meta. The company said that this would better “encompass” what it does as it helps in expanding its reach beyond social media into areas like Virtual Reality. However, the change not just applies to its individual platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, but also to the parent company that owns them.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said that the new name mirrors the company’s work invested in metaverse rather than its social media service which it is primarily known for. “We’ve learned a lot from struggling with social issues and living under closed platforms and now it is time to take everything that we’ve learned and help build the next chapter,” he said during an annual developers’ conference.
Ever since it rebranded itself, shares of Meta Platforms Inc has risen marginally in premarket trading.
The move comes weeks after the social media giant faced severe criticisms based on the documents leaked by an ex-employee. However, prior to that, the company has announced that it has been working on a metaverse virtual world as a “part of a broader push to rehabilitate the company’s reputation with policymakers and reposition Facebook to shape the regulation of next-wave internet technologies.”
Metaverse is expected to reach a billion people within the next decade and support jobs for millions of creators and developers. Recently, Facebook has also announced plans to hire around 10,000 people in the European Union to build the ‘metaverse’ with Zuckerbing being the leading promoter of the futuristic concept.
“Good faith criticism helps us get better, but my view is that what we are seeing is a coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company,” said Zuckerberg.