Yahoo Finance Facebook changes its name to ‘Meta’: What you need to know
Facebook will rename itself ‘Meta’, in an effort to align itself with its push to build the ‘metaverse’.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he expects the metaverse to reach a billion people within the next decade.
“From now on, we're going to be the metaverse first. Not Facebook first,” said Zuckerberg.
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The metaverse, he said, will be a place people will be able to interact, work and create products and content in what he hopes will be a new ecosystem that creates "millions" of jobs for creators.
What is a Metaverse?
Essentially, the metaverse is a set of virtual spaces where you can speak, collaborate and explore with other people who aren’t physically in the same place as you.
For example, you could pop on some virtual reality goggles and meet up with clients in a virtual boardroom.
Facebook said however, that the purpose in creating the virtual world is not to encourage people to spend more time online, but “making the time you do spend online more meaningful”.
“The metaverse isn’t a single product one company can build alone. Just like the internet, the metaverse exists whether Facebook is there or not. And it won’t be built overnight,” vice president of Facebook Reality Labs Andrew Bosworth said.
“Many of these products will only be fully realised in the next 10-15 years. While that’s frustrating for those of us eager to dive right in, it gives us time to ask the difficult questions about how they should be built.”
Will my Facebook app change?
Short answer - no. While the wider company name is being rebranded to Meta, the core Facebook platform will remain the same.
This is similar to how Google created a new parent company name, Alphabet, in 2015 to represent its shift beyond simply being a search engine.
In explaining the rebrand, Zuckerberg said the name "Facebook" just does not encompass "everything we do" any more.
Facebook in trouble
Some sceptics have called out Facebook for attempting to change the narrative after the Facebook Papers were leaked.
The leaked documents revealed the ways Facebook ignored internal reports and warnings of the harms its social network created or magnified across the world.
The papers detail internal memos and research at Facebook claiming that the social media giant is not only aware of the hate its platform perpetuates but also has taken active decisions to not stamp it out.
More to come.
-with AAP
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