The classic thumbs-up sign is gone too, and at its headquarters, you'll now find a blue infinity loop.
Facebook has a brand-new name.
Last night, the company announced that it will now be known as Meta — reflecting plans to focus on virtual reality and the metaverse.
The classic thumbs-up sign is gone too, and at its headquarters, you'll now find a blue infinity loop.
Mark Zuckerberg stressed that the names of its apps and social networks — including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — won't be changed.
During a livestream, the CEO predicted that the metaverse has the potential to reach one billion people over the next decade.
He believes it could transform the way we work and interact with friends — and even replace the mobile internet one day.
Zuckerberg also thinks the metaverse will enable us to do things that aren't possible on the internet right now… like dancing.
And explaining why the company is shedding the Facebook name, he said it is "so tightly linked to one product that it can't possibly represent everything that we're doing today, let alone in the future."
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What This Means
This is a significant move by Faceb-, ahem, Meta. The tech giant is betting its future on the metaverse — and wants to propel it mainstream.
What remains to be seen is how this will affect some of the other blockchain-based metaverses out there — and whether the tech giant plans to embrace NFTs.
Facebook has been working on launching its own cryptocurrency and digital wallet for the past two years, but has experienced a fierce pushback amid concerns over privacy. It's highly likely that critics will be worried about the metaverse for the self-same reason.
Marketing experts have suggested that Zuckerberg's decision might be a concerted effort to move the company away from the Facebook name because it is "damaged and toxic."
