Facebook adopts new name “Meta” after 17 years of operation, shifts focus to virtual world

After 17 years, social media colossus Facebook, which also owns Instagram and Whatsapp, has changed its name to Meta.

The focus of Meta will be to bring the metaverse to life by assisting individuals in connecting, finding communities, and growing enterprises,” stated Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, which is now Meta.

This new corporate identity comes at a time when the corporation is imagining an alternate virtual existence for humans through the use of augmented reality and virtual reality technologies.

“In this future, you will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents’ living room to catch up. This will open up more opportunity, no matter where you live. You’ll be able to spend more time on what matters to you, cut down time in traffic, and reduce your carbon footprint,” Mark said in a blogpost.

The overarching theme for Meta now will be the metaverse. The concept was first mentioned in the 1992 science-fiction novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

In simple terms, the metaverse is a virtual world that exists online in three dimensions. Users from all around the world will be able to meet, communicate, work, and play games in this 3D realm.

AR and VR will power the metaverse, with individuals managing their own digital avatars (s)

Mark said, “From now on, we will be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first. That means that over time you won’t need a Facebook account to use our other services. As our new brand starts showing up in our products, I hope people around the world come to know the Meta brand and the future we stand for.”

The founder of Meta made it clear that the metaverse will not be created by one company, and will be built by creators and developers making new experiences and digital items that are interoperable.

It is expected to free up a much larger creative economy than that which is now stifled by today’s platforms and policies.

Mark Zuckerberg stated, “We don’t build services to generate money; we make money to build better services.”