The new name “Meta” reflects Facebook’s projects beyond social media.
Facebook is Now Meta
On Thursday, Facebook held its Facebook Connect augmented and virtual reality conference. During the event, the company has finally revealed its new name — Meta.
The new name reflects Facebook’s projects beyond social media. The new name is from the term metaverse that describes the company’s vision for working and playing in a virtual world.
Mark Zuckerberg said that people see his company as a social media company. However, Meta is more than just a social media company today because it also builds technology that can connect people. Its next frontier is metaverse.
“The next platform will be even more immersive — an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build.” – Founder’s Letter
As the company changes its name, it’s also changing its stock ticker. Thus, effective December 1, its stock ticker will be MVRS from FB.
The idea about metaverse was announced by the company in July. Meta formed a team that would work on this project.
Last month, Meta said that Andrew Bosworth, who is head of the company’s hardware division, would become the chief technology officer next year.
Mark Zuckerberg hopes that within the next 10 years, “the metaverse will host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce.” He’s also hoping that this new platform will reach “a billion people and support jobs for creators and developers.”
Meta has increased its efforts in hardware. For instance, it recently launched its Ray-Ban Stories glasses. In the coming years, people can expect Facebook to focus on augmented and virtual reality.
The company will also spend $10 billion over the next year to create the technology that builds the metaverse.
During the online event, Zuckerberg provided a demo of his company’s ambitions for the metaverse. The demonstration was software similar to Pixar. It included cartoon-like users hanging out in space.
One of the interesting parts of the demo was that Mark used it to accuse other tech companies of stopping innovation by imposing high developer fees.
Mark also said that the elements of metaverse will become mainstream in the next five to ten years. His company believes that the successor to the mobile Internet is metaverse.
Meta announced Project Cambria. It’s a new VR headset. The company stated that it’s a high-end product. The price will be higher than the Quest 2 headset. It will be available next year.
The company also revealed its first smart glasses called Project Nazare. But they are still a few years out. However, the company is making good progress.
Meta is battling criticism over its market power. In recent years, it’s facing increasing scrutiny from regulators and global lawmakers.
Its latest controversy involves whistleblower and former Facebook employee leaking documents showing how the company chose profit over the safety of its users.
But Mark denied it. He said that the documents are being used just to paint a false picture of his company.
Last week, two Canadian Prime Ministers urged the government to regulate the tech giant. They accused the company of having no capacity to regulate itself.
