Facebook changes name to Meta, announces Mark Zuckerberg

Published on : 28/10/2021 – 22:00

Facebook is changing its name to Meta, its co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced Thursday, October 28, a move intended to underline the new priority of the digital giant, the “metaverse”, an online universe where users interact in shared virtual spaces.

The announcement comes amid growing criticism of US elected officials and regulators on the digital giant’s market power and its alleged laxity in the fight against abuse on its platforms.

The various applications and technologies of the group will now be brought together under this new brand. No change is made to the corporate structure.

A new logo unveiled

Earlier this week, when releasing its quarterly results, Facebook announced its willingness to invest heavily to build the “metaverse” – for meta-universe.

According to mark Zuckerberg, the metaverse represents the future of the Internet, after computers and mobile phones, to which the public will have access to interact, work or be entertained via technologies (augmented reality glasses, virtual reality headsets, etc. .).

Speaking at a virtual conference broadcast live by his company, Mark Zuckerberg said the name change reflected the tech giant’s new focus, the “metaverse”, rather than the roughly 2.9 billion dollar social network. users around the world.

“Right now, our brand is so tied to a single product that it is impossible for it to represent everything we do today, let alone what we will do in the future,” he said. he says.

A new logo was unveiled from the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, with the “thumbs up” giving way to a blue logo representing infinity.

This name change is interpreted as a distraction maneuver by critics of the Californian group, entangled in scandals and controversies, from disinformation to data confidentiality and respect for competition law.

The firm “thinks that a new brand can help it change the subject”, had already reacted last week an NGO of anti-Facebook activists, ironically baptized “the real supervisory board of Facebook (” The Real Facebook Oversight Board “), when rumors of a name change were circulating.

With AFP and Reuters