Facebook is one of the largest companies in the world. Used by billions of people each month, the technology company provides many services such as Facebook Messenger, Facebook Watch, and Facebook Portal. While Facebook was founded back in 2004, CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg wants to continue to grow the company. Recently, new details have emerged about the company suggesting an upcoming announcement.
It appears that Facebook plans to change its name in the coming days. According to The Verge, an inside source with “direct knowledge of the matter” says that the name change is being done to better align the company with its goal of developing the metaverse. Based on this info, the impending name change could occur during the annual Connect conference, where Mark Zuckerberg is expected to speak, on October 28. However, they also noted that the reveal of the new name could be sooner.
According to the source, Facebook wants to go beyond social media. Based on the information, this would add the Facebook social media platform to a parent company. In addition to the Facebook app, the parent company would manage other acquired groups such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. Unfortunately, no details regarding the new name of the company were given. It seems that the new name for the company is top-secret, with very few people knowing the official title. However, some have speculated that the name could have something to do with Horizon, a social VR project in development from Facebook.
It is worth noting that a spokesperson for Facebook refused to speak to The Verge about the details of this potential name change. This means that until Facebook chooses to officially announce more specifics regarding the rebranding, these details are subject to change. Nevertheless, it seems probable based on Facebook’s recent work attempting to build the metaverse, that this name change could be legitimate.
Besides these potential plans to rebrand the company, the tech giant has been pursuing the metaverse in other ways as well. Recently, Facebook hired over 10,000 employees in Europe to help make new technologies related to the metaverse initiative. The hiring of these new employees was meant to facilitate the creation of new augmented and virtual reality tech with Zuckerberg saying earlier this year that he hopes to see people regard Facebook as a metaverse company in the future.
The metaverse is a concept that has been tossed around by many recently. However, not all companies have spoken positively about the idea. A couple of months ago, the CEO of Niantic warned about the prospects of a metaverse. It will be interesting to see how Facebook approaches the creation of a metaverse moving forward.
Source: The Verge