Last week there was surprising
news from the tech company running the foremost social media network of the
world. Facebook Inc., which runs Facebook along with Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp,
Oculus and more, was changing its name. The idea of doing so, according to FB
CEO Mark Zuckerberg, was to shift the public focus of the company from social
media to its new direction, to pioneer in the development of a new online
internet environment. While the same social media community FB reigns over made
some hilariously pointed suggestions, the fact that Facebook Inc. is promoting
its work on the “meta-verse” meant only one possible name-change.
The Verge tells us that as of this past Thursday, October 28,
Facebook Inc. is now going by the name of Meta Platforms Inc., or just Meta for
short. Meta is now the umbrella under which the social media website/app
services of Facebook, Instagram et cetera are now grouped under, along with
other divisions busy embodying the multinational tech giant’s new development
focus. As Mark Zuckerberg puts it in his announcement, the now-Meta is pushing
forward with new connective online technology, part of the groundwork needed to
get the proposed meta-verse experience off the ground.
“We are a company that builds
technology to connect,” says Zuckerberg. “Together, we can finally put people
at the center of our technology. And together, we can unlock a massively bigger
creator economy.” The discarding of Facebook as the entire company’s name
(relegating it solely to the social network) indicates that Meta has grown more
and beyond mere social media, and that hopefully people will see them more as a
“meta-verse” company, one of many moving to evolve the internet from mere
computer displays to augmented reality and virtual spacing. No massive
reorganization of the company follows the name-change, beyond Oculus rebranding
as Meta Quest.
The adoption of a new name for Facebook
Inc. might cynically also be seen as an attempt to navigate a series of
controversies leveled against the company. Scrutiny will continue to fall on
Facebook, but only as the network of the same name and not of Meta Inc., its
parent company. Comparisons have also been made to Google, which in 2015
rebranded and made the search engine division just one arm of a larger parent
company called Alphabet. The Meta refresh might also alleviate demographic
changes in the FB user base, considering there are even fewer teens and young
adults still using the networking platform.
Image courtesy of AP News
0 comments:
Post a Comment