META - FB Changes It's Name

 

META - FB Changes It's Name

At Facebook’s Connect event yesterday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the corporation will switch its name to Meta. Why? Because calling the company Facebook is like calling Rihanna a musician—it just doesn’t work anymore.

• “Right now, our brand is so tightly linked with one product that it can’t possibly represent everything we’re doing today, let alone in the future,” Zuck said.

Meta is short for metaverse

Which has been described by Zuck as “the next chapter of the internet.” The metaverse is a complex topic to describe, even for experts, but roughly speaking it’s a world where people work, shop, play, and do everything else they normally do IRL—just in digital form.

And if the metaverse is the next chapter of the internet, Zuck wants to write it and leave everyone else in the footnotes.

• Meta (slowly getting used to it) is separating out its “Reality Labs” unit, which is home to Oculus and other virtual reality products. The other unit is the Family of Apps (WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.).
• The company is spending so much on the metaverse—like hiring 10,000 jobs in Europe to work on it—that its operating profits will take a $10 billion hit this year.

How you know it’s real: Meta is giving up its ticker FB and going with MVRS on Dec. 1.

Critics say this is an intentional distraction

Companies throughout history have rebranded when facing public pressure. In 2003, cigarette maker Philip Morris changed its name to Altria to try and shed its reputation as a public health menace.

As for Facebook, you could name it Orange Juice Squared and it would still be facing the same threats, such as a recent onslaught of critical reports, Apple’s privacy changes denting its ad business, and, perhaps most significantly, decreasing popularity among young people.

Now, Facebook’s problems are Meta’s problems.—NF