Facebook Dives Into the Metaverse With Its Name Change

“The company with all of those controversial leaked internal documents? That’s Facebook. You have reached Meta.” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the new name at the company's Connect 2021 virtual event Thursday. “Some of you may be wondering why we’re doing this right now,” he said at the beginning of his one-hour-plus keynote, saving the news on the rebrand for the end. “Today, we are seen as a social media company … in our DNA, we build technology to bring people together,” Zuckerberg said, noting that while Facebook is one of the most-used products in the world and an iconic social media brand, it doesn’t represent everything the company does. Metaverse Marketing Podcast: Defining A New Reality “Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product,” he added. “It is time for us to adopt a new company brand to encompass everything we do. Starting today, our company is now Meta. Now we have a new North Star to help bring the metaverse to life.” Reaction to the rumors swirling around over the past week about the name change was mostly pessimistic, with Gartner vice president and analyst Chris Ross calling it “a classic lipstick-on-the-pig scenario,” and The Social Element managing director, North America Ashley Cooksley telling Adweek, “It's presumably more about distancing the parent company from the Facebook product, so that any toxicity in Facebook stays within that one product rather than 'infecting' other brands under the parent banner.” We’re still the company that designs technology around people.Mark Zuckerberg Lindsay Hagan, vp of marketing at enterprise organic marketing tech company Conductor, felt that shifting away from social media and toward the metaverse could help the company to disassociate from some of its recent issues, but she cautioned that consumer adoption of augmented reality and virtual reality has been slower than forecast, while Rebecca Biestman, chief marketing officer of Reputation, added, “The best rebrands also go beyond a logo or name change but incorporate an overhaul of how a company's business processes and operations.” This shift has been in the works for some time. Zuckerberg’s focus on the metaverse initially came to light during a presentation to employees at the end of June, when he said he envisioned Facebook moving beyond connected social applications and hardware and into a “maximalist, interconnected set of experiences” known as the metaverse. In late July, Facebook Reality Labs vp Andrew Bosworth introduced a new Metaverse product group, led by then-Instagram vp of product Vishal Shah, with then-Facebook Gaming vp Vivek Sharma tapped to lead the Horizon team and Oculus veteran and then-Facebook Gaming vp of play Jason Rubin leading the content team. Oculus From Facebook introduced its Horizon Workrooms app in August, describing it as a virtual collaboration app that can “redefine the way we work and be a foundational step toward building the metaverse,” and adding that it works across VR and the web and enables teams to collaborate, communicate and connect remotely. Longtime chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer revealed in September that he will transition to become the company’s first senior fellow at some point in 2022, to be succeeded as CTO by Bosworth, and Zuckerberg said at the time, “As our next CTO, Boz will continue leading Facebook Reality Labs and overseeing our work in AR, VR and more, and, as part of this transition, a few other groups will join Boz’s team, as well. This is all foundational to our broader efforts helping to build the metaverse, and I’m excited about the future of this work under Boz’s leadership.” Late last month, Facebook said it will invest $50 million over two years in the XR Programs and Research Fund, earmarked for programs and external research related to responsible development of the metaverse. The company said it will collaborate with academic institutions, civil rights groups, governments, industry partners and nonprofits. The company revealed plans last week to create 10,000 new "high-skilled" jobs in the EU over the next five years to help build out the metaverse. Facebook to Create 10,000 EU Jobs Over 5 Years With the Metaverse in Mind And during Facebook’s third-quarter-2021 earnings call Monday, the company said it will change its reporting structure starting in the fourth quarter of this year to a two-segment model: Family of Apps, which will include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger From Facebook, WhatsApp and other services; and Facebook Reality Labs, encompassing AR and VR hardware, software and content. Chief financial officer David Wehner said during the call that the company expects its investment in Facebook Reality Labs to slash its operating profit in 2021 by approximately $10 billion. “Our mission remains the same: It’s still about bringing people together,” Zuckerberg concluded. “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.”

Metaverse

Facebook Dives Full Speed Ahead Into the Metaverse With Its Name Change to Meta

Mark Zuckerberg called it a new North Star

David Cohen

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David Cohen