Facebook has changed its name to Meta in an effort to claim the metaverse. This is a concept that allows for a 3D internet version.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, explains that Facebook has now become Meta Meta
Expect confusion as Facebook, whose products are used worldwide by over 3 billion people, rebrands. This is everything you need to know.
What happened?
Facebook, which owns platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, changed its name to Meta on 28 Oct after much speculation. At the annual Connect conference, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, stated that the brand's current focus is on one product and that it cannot possibly reflect all that we do in the future. Over time, I hope we will be seen as a metaverse business. I want to make sure that our work and identity are anchored on the goals we are building.
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Important to know that Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook will keep their respective names. The company that produces and maintains them all will be called Meta, similar to Google's 2015 corporate restructuring into an Alphabet parent company. Facebook (the company), even changed its logo outside its building in October.
Sorry, but what is a metaverse anyway?
Named to reflect the key product Zuckerberg hopes Facebook now Meta will represent: The metaverse, which is the name of a virtual shared space online that many companies are interested in creating.
You will be able teleport immediately as a hologram in the future to be at work without having to commute, at a concert or in your parents' living room. Zuckerberg wrote a letter to announce Facebooks rebranding to Meta.
It is possible in the future. But not now. The August metaverse, which was unveiled by the company, looks like The Sims and another immersive world older than The Sims: Second Life 2003.
Continue reading: Facebook vs Australia: The new battle to reduce big tech to size
What is Zuckerberg doing?
Meta is not content to be known as a social media platform. Anupam Chander, from Georgetown University Law Centre in Washington DC, believes that this is about claiming the operating system of tomorrow. This is based on Facebook's experience as an app on the operating systems of other people. They don't want to be held hostage on the platforms of others. They don't want other people to be prisoners on their platform.
Meta made oblique references in its announcement to Apple, saying that it wanted to avoid one company restricting your ability to do certain things and charging high fees. However, Max Van Kleek from the University of Oxford doubts that Meta will have control over its metaverse.
Meta will be the gatekeeper or just the tool provider? Van Kleek says that I doubt they would give up anything that could compromise their position of being the ultimate advertisement provider in the metaverse.
Is Facebook really sorry?
After the publication of the Facebook Papers (internal documents that highlight issues within the company), a steady stream of negative stories has resulted. These documents were secretly uncovered by Frances Haugen, a whistleblower. Some people have used the new name to distract from this story.
Its social networking products are the reason for all the negative press and political battles it is facing. Launching something completely new is a way to completely redesign and start over, according to Taina Bucher, author of the book Facebook.
Chander believes it is an attempt to ignore, rather than overwrite the Facebook Papers. He believes that Facebook is trying to pretend there are no strong headwinds and continues to act as if they don't exist.
What happens if Meta succeeds
Meta's desire to be the only company that underpins the metaverse has one problem. It would have a pivotal role in our lives if it becomes a reality. In recent months, there have been outages in its key apps which made it impossible to communicate with large areas of the world. If such an event occurs in an all-pervasive VR universe such as the metaverse, the implications could be severe.
Bucher says that the whole idea of the metaverse is utopian and naive. Bucher says that it makes many assumptions about people's lives. I'm sure that not everyone would be thrilled to have it in their home.
Chander says that this is another world they wish to conquer. They have conquered Earth and now they want to conquer the virtual world.
