Facebook has been in the news lately for a peculiar reason – the decision to change its name. However, what seemed even more unusual is the newly announced name for Facebook – ‘Meta’ (that certainly reminisces all the ‘data’ disasters).
Since then, every internet user has remained stunned, confused, amused, or wondering what made it happen, why it happened, and what’s next. Indeed, given the popularity of Facebook as a brand for years, it seemed awkward to suddenly change the name.
Amidst all the chaos and speculations about the future of your data, we thought to help you find the answers to all your queries in one place. So, read along to know all about the tech giant’s journey from ‘TheFacebook’ to ‘Facebook’ to ‘Meta’ and beyond.
Facebook rebrands as ‘Meta’ – That’s the news
About a week ago, Facebook announced to change the name of its parent firm ‘Facebook Inc.’ Earlier, ‘Facebook’ was not only a social media platform but was also the primary holding firm behind the products Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Oculus, and others.
Though it wasn’t previously a problem, the back-to-back issues with the ‘Facebook’ platform damaged the firm’s reputation. (We’ll talk about it in detail later.)
Also, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and CEO of (former) Facebook Inc., envisioned a different and broader future. In particular, he referred to the “metaverse” as the firm’s future. And for that, he deemed ‘Facebook’ to be limiting as the brand name.
Hence, Zuckerberg hinted at an identity change for the parent company while leaving all the products’ names unchanged.
This idea quickly gained traction, leaving people speculating about what would come next.
Finally, on October 28, 2021, at the annual Connect conference, Zuckerberg unveiled the new identity as ‘Meta Platforms Inc.’ or, in short, ‘Meta.’
Elaborating on this in the Founder’s Letter, 2021, Zuckerberg stated,
To reflect who we are and the future we hope to build, I’m proud to share that our company is now Meta.
Our mission remains the same — it’s still about bringing people together. Our apps and their brands aren’t changing either. We’re still the company that designs technology around people.
But all of our products, including our apps, now share a new vision: to help bring the metaverse to life. And now we have a name that reflects the breadth of what we do.
Regarding the selection of the new identity, he wrote,
I used to study Classics, and the word “meta” comes from the Greek word meaning “beyond”. For me, it symbolizes that there is always more to build, and there is always a next chapter to the story.
This careful rebranding hasn’t arrived haphazardly. Instead, the firm ensured reflecting the change everywhere on the internet together with the formal announcement. Consequently, everything, from Facebook’s official Twitter account to the Wikipedia page, replaced ‘Facebook’ as the company name to ‘Meta.’
(Interestingly, there’s another Twitter account named ‘Facebook’ that is currently private. We aren’t sure what it holds for us.)
On top of everything, the firm also has an official online existence as “meta.com,” which currently redirects to “https://about.facebook.com/meta.”
But what is ‘Metaverse’? Let’s understand
Although ‘metaverse’ isn’t a new word, it became the buzzword soon after Facebook’s name change. Also, how Zuckerberg demonstrated the concept in his Keynote lecture (videos available on meta.com) bewildered many. In brief, it was all about building a realm that blends virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).
So what exactly is metaverse, we hear you ask.