At the end of October, Facebook made to bold move to change its name to Meta. The last time the founder, Mark Zuckerberg renamed his company, it was very dramatic: dropping “The” from “The Facebook”, but this is now completely different, but there is good reason for it.
Some users believe this name change is due to the platform not doing as well as it used to due to excessive amounts of hate speech against the police and its detriment to teenagers’ mental health. A simple name change can actually rebrand a company’s entire appearance towards investors and venture capitalists. This can be compared to Google rebranding to Alphabet back in 2015. Users will still go to google.com but Google lives under the corporate umbrella that is Alphabet. Facebook.com will forever be facebook.com but Facebook is no longer a company, just a website that is part of the company Meta.
Zuckerberg never actually addressed the toxic atmosphere around Facebook, that information was provided by a whistleblower and a former Facebook employee. However during the Facebook Connect event, Zuckerberg stated his reason for the name change, Facebook wants to set its focus on building a MetaVerse.
A Metaverse has been a sort of buzzword for quite some time now, but only now is actually being made for consumers. A metaverse is essentially a virtual community where anyone can talk, work, and play using Virtual/Augmented Reality. It is essentially an “embodied internet where instead of just viewing content — you are in it”. It is almost like Spielberg’s cinematic take on the film, “Ready Player One”.
The Meta Company will have two focus points, their apps Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc., and their reality labs which would be their VR/AR hardware and software. Zuckerberg’s hope is that all of life will be done virtually, this includes education, workplaces, fitness, etc. One of the first apps that will be available in the metaverse is Grand Theft Auto, which is an existing wildly successful video game, but now a version is being developed so that users will actually be in the game rather idly by.
What's interesting about this move by Facebook is that it is obviously a defensive move. Facebook is trying to rebrand itself because there is a lot of pressure on the brand, it's getting older, and Facebook does not want to become the next Myspace or Friendster.
What’s even more interesting is that it is also an offense move. Facebook remained relevant for so many years is because it went to where the attention is. They bought Instagram and Whatsapp (they tried to buy Snapchat), now they are trying to build a Metaverse, keeping in mind they already control Oculus.
The offense is always going to be a better reason to rebrand but when timed right with Defense, it makes a really interesting move to watch play out in the next 5–10 years.
Just as smartphones replaced computers, when Steve Jobs released the Iphone, Zuckerberg is trying to do the replace smartphones with the metaverse as the next phase of technological evolution.
Starting December 1st, All stock tickers(name of stocks) of Facebook are going to change from $FB to $MVRS.
