What’s the first thing you do when your company shows signs of struggling or signs of internal struggles? You rename the company. The Verge reports that Facebook plans to change the company name to better reflect the companies focus on “the metaverse.” A source familiar with the matter confirmed the news to The Verge.
The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th, but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail. The rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and more. A spokesperson for Facebook declined to comment for this story.
The change will be similar to how the parent company of Google and YouTube was renamed “Alphabet.” The upcoming changes will see Facebook (the social network) be just one of many products including the social network, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus under the corporate umbrella. “FACEBOOK,” in all caps, is currently the name of the parent company.
In July, Zuckerberg told The Verge that, over the next several years, “we will effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company.”
The Verge says a possible name could have something to do with Horizon, the name of the still-unreleased VR version of Facebook-meets-Roblox that the company has been working on for the past few years.