Why did Facebook Change its Corporate name to Meta?

Whenever we talk about social media that bring people together from all around the world, only one word comes to our mind and that is none other than Facebook. Although this social media giant is not the first social networking site in the world, still it holds the utmost level of importance and popularity. Facebook made the world a global village where one can connect with another person, who is sitting in a completely different corner of the planet. It is one of the most, if not the most successful social media platform.

It was founded in the year 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz, and Eduardo Saverin and didn’t take long to be a full-fledged multinational technology company from just a social networking site. With its impressive service, it is considered one of the most valuable companies in the world. The most attractive feature of Facebook is that is free and for everyone. Anyone can create a profile on Facebook and use it to their heart’s content.

This social media giant hasn’t taken a rest in all these years and has acquired some biggest companies that deal with social networking. Facebook took charge of Instagram in the year 2012 and of WhatsApp in 2014. By taking these biggest platforms in its grasps, it almost holds the entire social media industry in its palm.

Facebook is never tired of creating history. The leading social media platform was again on the news, where it changed its corporate name to “Meta” on October 28, 2021, as part of the most-awaited rebranding attempt.

At Facebook, we build tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people's capacity to build and maintain relationships.

- Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook Changing Its Name
What Is Metaverse?
Facebook Oculus Acquisition
Is Recent Facebook Controversy behind the Rename?
Why Facebook Rebrands to Meta, Reflecting Metaverse?
Meta Logo
Conclusion
FAQ

Facebook Changing Its Name

The company that has conquered the entire social media world has announced to reinvent itself by doing the first and foremost thing, changing its name. Speculations were there across media channels from around the globe regarding when Facebook will likely be changing its name. While most of the media channels couldn't hold the excitement about the change of Facebook's name, some reports revealed on the October 20 continued to mention Facebook will have a new name when the next annual Connect conference of the company will take place. However, the social media behemoth finally managed to change its corporate name, the main aim of which is to reflect its focus on building the metaverse.

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What Is Metaverse?

Two decades ago, the world that we are staying in now, seemed like a world in a science fiction movie. Thanks to technological advancement, it is the reality now.

The use of the word ‘Metaverse’ recently become a trend after Mark Zuckerberg talked about it a few months ago although the term was first coined in 1992 in a Science fiction ‘Snow Crash’ by Neal Stephenson.

The term basically means that physical reality and virtual reality will coexist in a shared online space. According to Zuckerberg, the metaverse will provide creators and artists with huge opportunities.

The company also announced that it will create 10,000 jobs in the European Union to make its metaverse dream come true. With technologies of virtual and augmented reality connected the digital space will be lifelike this is what metaverse is.

It will be open for everyone just like the internet instead of a single company. The online interaction through this will be more lifelike plus with our jobs, schools, and colleges being online, this seems to be the need of the hour. So, Facebook is taking the initiative to turn into a metaverse company in the next five years.

Facebook Oculus Acquisition

It seems Facebook was thinking about its rebranding issue for a long time, the company acquired 'Oculus' that produces virtual reality headsets in 2014 for a whopping price of $2 billion.

At that time, Oculus was just a 2-year-old company. Facebook believes that VR is the future and that in no time, people will start interacting, working, and playing in the virtual world only. Facebook is also interested to connect the Messenger app with Oculus Quest.

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Is Recent Facebook Controversy behind the Rename?

Not to forget the recent controversies surrounding the biggest social networking company may also have contributed to this decision. The controversial documents shared by whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former product manager of the civic integrity team have added fuel to the fire.

The documents claimed that Facebook already knew that the products of the company are causing harm to the teenagers and are affecting their mental health but has not done anything to eradicate the problem.

The global outage in the month of October is probably the last nail in the coffin, with all the major apps owned by Facebook Inc. like Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook itself down it was the longest global outage of recent times. The outage was almost of 6 hours. This may play a massive role in the decision of re-branding to give itself a new and fresh start.

Why Facebook Rebrands to Meta, Reflecting Metaverse?

Facebook has finally managed to change its corporate name to "Meta" to draw the end to all the speculations around the world on October 28, 2021. This rebranding was done with a move to signify all that Facebook is doing beyond the social media platform of the company.

There is no doubt that Facebook's most important product is Facebook itself, or the social media platform that it nurtures. However, the American multinational technology conglomerate has made numerous advancements also in the areas like Virtual Reality (VR) and is looking to further expand in the upcoming years.

Now, in case you are wondering whether Facebook will be called by its old name anymore, then you should know that the brand has only witnessed a technical change in its corporate name. This means that Facebook will still be called by its previous name, and nothing else will change on the platform. Besides, Facebook-acquired Whatsapp and Instagram will also be the same thing that they were. However, this change does affect the corporate name, which was Facebook Inc. earlier because that is now changed to Meta Platforms, Inc.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg had earlier remarked on the change by saying that the existing name of Facebook couldn't "possibly represent everything that we're doing today, let alone in the future," and thus, it needed to change.

By changing its corporate name, Facebook is now planning to build a "metaverse," which is deemed to be an online world where people would be able to play games, work, and communicate in a virtual environment, via VR headsets.

Coming from the Greek word "meta", the new name of Facebook means "beyond" and quite justifies what it is doing and aiming to do in the future.

Meta Logo

The name change also brought in a new logo for the brand on the internet and also at the company's Menlo Park headquarters in California. The earlier thumbs-up logo, which symbolized the Facebook "Like" is now a "blue infinity".

Conclusion

The biggest social networking site has got its name changed and all this is to make the company better and turn it into a metaverse. The name "Meta" is itself the start of Metaverse, and it will surely result in a metaverse soon. Facebook is setting its eyes on opening a new door to a world that will literally erase the line between physical reality and virtual reality.

FAQ

Is Facebook rebranding itself?

Yes, some reports long suggested that Facebook was planning to rename itself and the new name will reflect the focus on the metaverse. The name change actually was materialized on October 28, 2021, when the corporate name of the company was rebranded to "Meta."

What is Metaverse?

It is a huge virtual world where millions of people can access it at the same time using their own avatars.

Is Oculus owned by Facebook?

Oculus was bought by tech giant Facebook for $2 billion in 2014.