Facebook announces its name change to Meta
On Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed at Facebook’s annual AR/VR conference that he was planning to change the name of Facebook to Meta in a rebrand after the company faced a series of public relations crises. At the conference, he outlined the company’s virtual-reality vision and concept for the future.
The CEO outlined his plans to create the metaverse. A digital world built by people on their own, involving virtual reality headsets and augmented reality. Zuckerberg said that he believes the metaverse will make a difference and be the successor of the mobile internet. According to his presentation, people will feel present with people no matter the actual difference.
A blue infinity symbol is a logo of the new holding company Meta. It will include its largest subsidiary, Facebook, and other apps, including WhatsApp, Instagram, as well as the virtual reality brand Oculus.
Facebook also plans to create over 10,000 jobs in the EU to help build a ‘metaverse.’
Reports
In recent earnings reports, Facebook announced that its virtual reality division grew. They will now report their revenue individually, splitting their products into two categories.
Those categories include apps: Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and the reality labs products, such as AR, VR, and other related hardware.
On Thursday, Zuckerberg said he anticipates the metaverse to reach around one billion people in the next decade. He described his futuristic plans saying that he intends to create a digital world where users will feel a close presence despite being far apart.
The platform would enable people to create their avatars and customize digital spaces. They will furnish a digital office and decorate with pictures and books. The presentation showed users inviting friends and family over virtually, people attending a concert together despite being far away from one another, and colleagues making presentations at work remotely. Zuckerberg admitted that the company has a long way to go until it reaches its plan, adding that the best way to feel and understand the metaverse is to experience it. Zuckerberg also said that Facebook released two of its metaverse projects last year: Horizon World (allowing people to invite friends over into their digital world) and Horizon Workrooms, which does the same in a professional context. He added that Facebook plans to explore NFTs and crypto further to help promote media represented digitally. The company is working on gaming applications as well.
