News on October 29, according to foreign media reports,On Thursday, local time in the United States, at the annual Connect conference, the social media giant Facebook announced that it officially changed its name to Meta, and Mark Zuckerberg became the CEO and chairman of the new company.It is understood that “Meta” comes from “Metaverse”.
Facebook: Change company name to “Meta”
Facebook said it plans to start trading under the stock symbol “MVRS” on December 1. Facebook’s service of the same name was downgraded to one of the company’s subsidiaries, alongside Instagram and WhatsApp, rather than the overall brand.
Analysts said that the rebranding is to show the determination of the social media giant to enter the meta universe. Zuckerberg believes that meta universe is the future of the Internet. After the reorganization, Zuckerberg still controls everything in the new company. He admitted that, unlike Google’s founder who chose to resign after Google reorganized into its parent company Alphabet in 2015, he did not intend to give up the top position.
Zuckerberg said that the reason for his determination to change the company’s name was because he recognized that changes had taken place within the company. Zuckerberg has always invested heavily (at least US$10 billion this year alone) to build Meta Universe. He said: “I think we are basically transforming from a’Facebook First’ to a’Meta Universe First’ company. “
Although there are not many details about the reorganization at present, Meta will introduce a unified account system to cover all the company’s social applications, Oculus Quest helmets, Portal and other devices in the future. This means that people no longer need a Facebook account to use Quest.
Zuckerberg revealed that he officially launched the restructuring plan more than six months ago, but this is always a secret incident. The few employees involved must sign a separate confidentiality agreement, Zuckerberg previously firmly refused to disclose the company’s new name.
He said that since acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014, he has been thinking about rebranding the company, but earlier this year he realized that it was time to make a change.
Zuckerberg said: “I think it would be very confusing and embarrassing to let the company’s brand become the brand of one of the social media applications at the same time. I think it is helpful for people to build a relationship with a company. This relationship is different from its relationship with any particular product, but can replace all subdivision relationships to some extent.”
Zuckerberg admitted that the timing of the company’s name change is questionable. In the past few weeks, internal documents provided to the media by a former employee named Frances Haugen have caused the company to receive a lot of criticism. Facebook may be the most watched company in the world right now, and its brand has deteriorated in the eyes of young people. For many critics, keeping the company brand and Zuckerberg away from the name Facebook will be seen as an escape strategy.
But Zuckerberg clarified that the name change has nothing to do with the current bad news. He explained: “Although I think some people may want to establish this connection, it is ridiculous.”
The concept of a metaverse is not new, but it wasn’t until Zuckerberg started talking about it publicly earlier this year that it was pushed into mainstream conversations. Although Zuckerberg admits that the origin of the word is a “scam,” he is trying to reposition the metaverse as a utopian ideal, which will open up a new kind of virtual goods and service economy.
Zuckerberg believes that in the next ten years, most people will spend their time on a fully immersive 3D version of the Internet, including not only hardware such as Meta’s Quest, but also equipment manufactured by other companies. Zuckerberg is pushing his team to build related technologies, hoping to allow you to appear as an avatar in a virtual space in the future, or a hologram to appear in the real-world living room of friends all over the world.
Zuckerberg carefully hides the details, but he believes that cryptocurrency technologies such as NFT and smart contracts will play a “quite important role” in the metaverse. He said: “People will have big questions about virtual goods in the meta-universe, such as’Can I really own this thing?’ Considering that we have to try to bypass all the pressure of censorship, I am very sensitive to this. Especially what is harmful and when you must prevent people from expressing something.”
The software that underpins Zuckerberg’s optimism about the meta-universe prospects is called Horizon, which is the intersection of Minecraft and Roblox, and it also provides work collaboration applications. Next year, Meta plans to launch Project Cambria, a high-end mixed reality device, which will mix virtual graphics with the real world and present them in full color. It will have face and eye tracking functions to support more realistic avatars.
Meta is also building AR glasses called Nazaré. Although they will take a few years to make an appearance. But for Zuckerberg, they might look like today’scell phoneThat is widely used. Nazaré looks like ordinary glasses, and the display can cover the calculations on the world around you. Zuckerberg said: “These products are becoming less and less like the social media products you think today, and it’s important to recognize this.”
It is unclear whether the rebranding of Meta will achieve Zuckerberg’s goals, but there is no doubt that this is a bold move. The company is facing the challenge of new social media competitors, stricter government regulation, and a new generation of potential users who believe that its core applications are no longer fashionable. Meta Universe provides Zuckerberg with a new and promising development direction.
