Facebook announced Thursday that it would change its corporate name from Meta to Meta.
Under the new brand, the company's main social application will continue to exist.
Facebook's name change is amidst a massive public backlash against it.
Receive the most recent tech news and innovations every day directly to your inbox Loading Click Sign up to receive marketing emails and other offers from Insider.
Facebook announced Thursday that it would change its corporate name from Meta to Meta.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that "From now on we'll have metaverse first, and not Facebook first" during Oculus Connect. "Eventually, you won’t need to use Facebook in order to use our other services.
Facebook announced that the company will trade under the new stock symbol MVRS starting December 1.
The highly anticipated name change comes just a week after The Verge reported that the company was changing its name to better reflect its "metaverse mission."
In July, Zuckerberg made it clear that he wants Facebook to be a "metaverse" company. The company announced last week that it would be hiring 10,000 people in Europe to help build its metaverse project.
The metaverse is a virtual world where people can interact digitally with avatars.
The new brand will include Facebook's main social network, Horizon, and other products. It's almost like Google being under the Alphabet umbrella.
Although there were reports that the company would undergo major corporate restructuring, such as Alphabet or Google, Facebook stated that its "corporate structure" is not changing. The company's financial reporting will be split into two segments: its Reality Labs, and its Family of Apps.
Zuckerberg stated, "Now we have a north star." "We will be Metaverse first from now on, not Facebook first."
After leaked documents revealed Facebook's scandalous business practices, Facebook has had a difficult few weeks. It has been focusing on its metaverse mission.
Experts previously stated that the metaverse emphasis was an "ingenious" marketing move. However, the company still faces the same problems that have caused so much public backlash. Experts told Insider that the company's name change would not be enough to stop the torrent of criticism.
The company may be trying to "divert conversation from their current issues onto the metaverse which is exciting and futuristic," Anne Olderog (a senior partner at Vivaldi Consulting with 20 years of experience in brand-strategy), said.
Olderog said that "And really, nobody understands" metaverses, which are "also brilliant moves."
She said that while the name change was exciting, it created momentum. However, the public could "definitely discern through things like this at this stage."
