This week, Facebook is considering changing its name to reflect its focus on establishing the metaverse.
The upcoming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes to discuss at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th but might be announced soon, is designed to signify the internet giant’s aim to be known for more than just social networking and all of its associated problems. The makeover would most likely present the blue Facebook app as one of many products managed by a parent business that also oversees Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and other companies. A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment for this article.
Facebook currently has over 10,000 staff working on consumer devices such as augmented reality glasses, which Zuckerberg expects will become as common as smartphones. In July, he stated that “we will successfully move from people perceiving us as predominantly a social network business to being a metaverse company” over the next several years.
Facebook isn’t the only well-known technology business to alter its name as its goals grow. Google reorganized entirely under the Alphabet holding company in 2015, partly to signal that it was no longer just a search engine, but a sprawling conglomerate with companies developing self-driving cars and health-care technology. In 2016, Snapchat changed its name to Snap Inc., the same year it began referring to itself as a “camera company” and unveiled its first set of Spectacles camera spectacles.
Apart from Zuckerberg’s remarks, Facebook has been quietly building the basis for a bigger focus on future technologies. It established a specialized metaverse team this past summer. Andrew Bosworth, the company’s head of AR and VR, has recently been elevated to chief technology officer. Only a few days ago, Facebook announced intentions to hire 10,000 additional people in Europe to work on the metaverse.
Zuckerberg told that “it’s going to be the next big chapter for our company too, really doubling down in this area.”
The term metaverse was originally coined by sci-fi novelist Neal Stephenson to describe a virtual world people escape to from a dystopian, real world.
Now it’s being embraced by one of the world’s most powerful and divisive corporations, which will have to justify why its own virtual world is worth exploring.
The metaverse is “going to be a significant priority,” according to Zuckerberg, “and I believe this is really going to be a big part of the next chapter for how the internet grows beyond the mobile internet.”
