TL;DR Breakdown

• Facebook Inc. has rebranded and changed its name to ‘Meta’. 
• The rebrand is part of the company’s major step towards helping to create the Metaverse. 
• ‘Meta’ will start trading under its new stock ticker ‘MVRS’ from 1st December. 
• Critics believe that the rebrand is Facebook’s strategy to shadow the recent allegations brought by the whistleblower. 

Facebook, the social media giant has gone through a major rebrand by changing its name to ‘Meta’. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and Founder of Facebook has announced this new rebrand on Thursday during Connect event. 

Zuckerberg stated that the name ‘Facebook’ doesn’t fully reflect on what the company is doing right now and what it hopes to achieve. The Facebook platform is just one technology of the company. “We are a company that builds technology to connect. Over time, I hope we’re seen as a metaverse company.” 

As a part of the rebrand, the company has also changed its logo from the popular thumbs-up ‘Like’ sign to a blue infinity ribbon, symbolizing the constant and immersive connectivity of the Metaverse. 

Zuckerberg also stated that the newly named company ‘Meta’ will start trading under its new stock ticker ‘MVRS’ from December 1st. 

Will the names on the apps change? 

It’s important to understand that ‘Meta’ is going to be the new corporate identity of Facebook Inc. The names and brands of the apps developed by the company will remain the same, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger will remain the same. 

Martin Harbech, the director of Facebook Group says that “Our mission remains the same, but we have a new vision”.  

What is the Metaverse? 

Metaverse is the future form of the internet. Our current online environment is most 2D and 3D elements, with limited immersive features. The Metaverse will be this immersive 3D internet environment, where people can connect and communicate through VR (Virtual Reality) and AR-based (Augmented Reality) environments. 

Think of it like this, instead of sitting in front of a computer, users can simply wear a headset to enter the virtual world of the internet, where every digital platform and content will be connected through a 3D virtual world. This is the Metaverse. 

Meta describes metaverse as the next chapter in social connection, a place where everyone can connect, interact, and communicate in 3D.

Why did Facebook Rebrand? 

Zuckerberg has stated that the rebrand is the company’s big step towards helping to develop the metaverse over the next few years.  

There are of course a lot of backlash from critics saying that the timing of this new rebrand is no coincidence. Earlier this month, a former Facebook employee Frances Haugen came out as a whistleblower, leaking internal documents of the company. 

The leaked documents showed that Facebook had the ability to stop major violent events such as the US Capitol Attack but did not accordingly. Also, there was information about the company favoring their profits before user benefit, by increasingly exposing users to negative content. 

The leaked reports also suggest that several illegal crimes are being conducted through the platform without any moderation, such as human traffic, sexual exploitation, and much more. 

The company is under government investigation, and many people are speculating that changing its brand identity is part of Zuckerberg’s crisis response strategy. The company has faced whistleblowers, investigation, and congressional hearings before, but the crisis seems to be much worse this time around.

Only time will tell if the newly branded ‘Meta’ is a definitive push towards the metaverse or just another attempt by Facebook to shadow the growing allegations against the popular social media platform.