Facebook Rebrands to META

So, Zuck just changed the name of Facebook to Meta.

The rebrand comes amidst a barrage of lawsuits, investigations, and proposed legislation aimed at regulating its platforms. A timely move when you consider only 41% of U.S. online adults say they trust the platform and 67% of users say that they have been the victims of misinformation.

But Zuck has another reason. Speaking yesterday from their headquarters in Silicon Valley the facebook founder stated “Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future.”

Zuck went on to outline a myriad of apps and hardware under development and state “We’ve gone from desktop to web to phones from text to photos to video, but this isn’t the end of the line,”

The next platform and medium will be even more immersive and embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it, and we call this the metaverse.

Mark Zuckerberg

What is the metaverse?

The metaverse is a virtual world you can plug yourself into and play games, buy real estate, go to a bar, meet people, and so on. Think of movies such as Ready Player One, The Matrix, Tron or platforms like Second Life.

According to Zuck 1 billion people will be part of this virtual world within the next decade. ​

This is not an investment that is going to be profitable for us any time in the near future, but we basically believe that the metaverse is going to be the successor to the mobile internet. We basically believe that the metaverse is going to be the successor to the mobile internet.

Mark Zuckerberg

So what’s happening with Facebook?

The product Facebook stays the same and “will become a branded arm, as will Oculus and any other metaverse extensions,” said Tim Bajarin, chairman of Creative Strategies. Other apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger will remain unchanged, as will the company’s corporate structure. On December 1, its shares will start trading under a new ticker symbol, MVRS.

Despite the systemic issues, multiple lawsuits and anticompetitive practices facebook continues to be the most frequently used social media platforms among marketers worldwide.

We offer a range of digital marketing packages for Facebook and Instagram to help you reach your marketing goals. We don’t offer anything in the Metaverse yet but as Zuck’s new focus implies  watch this space.