Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will operate under Meta
Facebook is changing its corporate name to Meta, the company announced on Thursday. Meta will act as an umbrella for subsidiaries Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to operate under.
Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the change, which the company said represents its shift to focusing more on its new project called the “metaverse.”
The announcement came during Facebook Connect, the company’s virtual and augmented reality conference.
“Today we’re seen as a social media company,” Zuckerberg said, “but in our DNA, we are a company that builds technology to connect people. And the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started.”
The metaverse is a planned virtual space where people will be able to congregate and socialize with other users. The company recently announced it is hiring 10,000 workers in the European Union to help build the new project.
“The metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world,” the company said. “It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together — and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world.”
The rebranding could also be an attempt by the company to clean up its reputation amidst a slew of claims including that it knowingly spreads misinformation, targets pre-teen users, and has an overall negative effect on its users’ mental health.
The company formerly known as Facebook also made changes to its corporate sign, replacing a thumbs-up graphic with a blue infinity sign outside of its California headquarters.
Meta said it will begin trading as MVRS starting on Dec. 1.
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