In the future, Facebook wants to put a special focus on the development of a metaverse.
(Photo: dpa)
Menlo Park According to a media report, Facebook wants to change its company name. In order to focus on the virtual world “Metaverse”, there will be a name change in the coming week, reported the US technology portal “The Verge” on Wednesday. The portal, which is considered to be well networked, refers to a source “with direct knowledge of the matter”.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wanted to talk about it at the company’s Connect conference on October 28th. The change should signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than just social media.
The Facebook group not only owns the actual Facebook service, which has a blue and white logo as a smartphone app, but also the messenger service WhatsApp and the photo and video service Instagram. Oculus is still part of the Facebook empire. The division manufactures virtual reality glasses, including the Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest lines.
According to the report, renaming the group would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and more. When asked, Facebook said they did not want to comment on the speculation.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Facebook would not be the first Silicon Valley corporation to change its company name if the direction of the company expanded. For example, after the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007, Apple deleted the word “computer” from the company name. At the time, the iPod music player alone was making more sales than the Macintosh computers.
Google reorganized itself in 2015 under the umbrella of a holding company called Alphabet. The Internet company wanted to signal that it not only operates a search engine and a cloud business, but also has ambitions for driverless cars, health solutions and other high-tech areas. And Snapchat renamed itself Snap Inc. in 2016. At the same time, the company began to call itself a “camera company”.
By changing the name of the group, Facebook would underline its ambitions that go beyond conventional social networks. For example, Zuckerberg announced the creation of a “Metaverse” months ago. This is supposed to be a virtual environment as described in science fiction novels.
Zuckerberg believes that this is no longer just a dream due to the rapid development of hardware and glasses for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). On Monday, the company announced that it would create 10,000 new, highly qualified jobs in the European Union over the next five years in order to build the virtual world “Metaverse”.
More: Facebook pays millions in fines for discriminating against US workers