Meta is the new name for the Facebook company

Facebook company is now called Meta.

 

For weeks now buzz has been going around about the social media company formerly known as Facebook on its plan to change its name. Today, Mark Zuckerberg announced such a change confirming the buzz. In his announcement through his founder’s letter, Mr. Zuckerberg described the future beyond the mobile internet. A future where people can communicate and make you feel like you are in the same room with the person you are talking to, or feel like you are in another place at the comforts of your home.

Meta Company

Mark Zuckerberg believes that what internet technology has achieved so far is not the “end of the line”. He mentioned that there is something far greater beyond what we have now. The word “meta” in Greek has several meanings but Mr. Zuckerberg is anchoring on the translation of “meta” to the word “beyond”.

In their quest to build a platform beyond the current technology, Mr. Zuckerberg believes that building the metaverse is the right direction. The metaverse is defined as a digital space shared by the physical, virtual, and augmented reality. In his announcement, Mark Zuckerberg painted a utopian digital world, where you can basically do anything from work, play, family, and anything that is yet to be conceived.

The Meta Company Logo

The Meta Company logo is the infinity symbol that is skewed a bit that it almost looks like a pretzel. It retained the general color of blue from Facebook, but different shades of blue are noticeable in the logo.

The Role of Meta

According to Mr. Zuckerberg, the building of the metaverse doesn’t rest only on the Meta company. It will be a collaboration between developers and creators. The Meta company’s role is to “accelerate the development of the fundamental technologies, social platforms and creative tools to bring the metaverse to life…”

What does this all mean?

With the announcement of Meta as the new name for the company, Facebook will now be reduced as a brand name under the umbrella of the Meta company. It was mentioned that prior to this announcement, the Facebook company has been broken into two, one that is focused on the family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, WeChat etc.) and the other focused on building future platforms. Now, these two divisions will be under one umbrella company called Meta.

This is not the first time for a company to break up its divisions and rebrand the company name. In 2015, Google has renamed its company to Alphabet and broke Google into different companies based on the technology they are working on such as Self-driving Cars and advancements in medical technology, while Google as a brand focused on its search technology.

Skeptic weigh-in

Some skeptics however are doubtful of the name change by Facebook as a company. They believe that this is their way of distancing themselves from a product that is marred by controversies after damaging leaked company documents and whistleblowers emerged. Not to mention the number of government inquiries Facebook is subjected to because of its problems in promoting fake news about vaccines, its role in the January 6 U.S. capitol breach, and the number of other controversies that are now currently being subjected to investigation by the U.S. and British government.

Metaverse Focus First

Capping his announcement, Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that the company will now be focusing on building the metaverse first and not Facebook-first. He will be dedicating his energy to building this new platform. We can then expect that new products will be developed and existing products will be improved to conform to the metaverse.

Are you excited about this new company name and what it stands for?