Facebook Inc's Change Of Name To Meta Won't Stop The Case They're Facing

JAKARTA - Facebook Inc, the parent company of the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, has now changed its name to Meta. The announcement was made by the company on Thursday, October 28. They did so in the context of a rebranding focused on building a "metaverse," a shared virtual environment that is at stake for the future successor to the mobile internet.

The name change comes as the world's largest social media company faces criticism from lawmakers and regulators in a number of countries for its market power, algorithmic decisions and reporting to police for violations of its services.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at the company's live-streamed virtual reality and augmented reality conference, said the new name reflected the work of those investing in the metaverse, rather than its namesake social media service, which Facebook will continue to call.

Metaverse is a term coined in the dystopian novel "Snow Crash" three decades ago and is now attracting attention in Silicon Valley. It refers broadly to the idea of a shared virtual world that is accessible to people using different devices.

"Right now, our brand is so closely tied to one product that it can't possibly represent everything we do today, let alone in the future," Zuckerberg said.

The company, which has invested heavily in augmented reality and virtual reality, said the change would bring together various applications and technologies under one new brand. However, this change will not change the company's structure.

The tech giant, which reports having about 2.9 billion monthly users, has faced increased scrutiny in recent years from lawmakers and regulators in many countries.

In the latest controversy, whistleblower and former Facebook employee, Frances Haugen, leaked documents she said showed the company was choosing profit over the safety of its users. Haugen has in recent weeks testified before a subcommittee of the US Senate and lawmakers in the British Parliament. Zuckerberg earlier this week said the documents were being used to paint a "false picture" of his company.

Facebook Inc, now known as Meta, said in a blog post that it intends to start trading under its new reserved stock ticker, MVRS, on December 1. Last Thursday, Zuckerberg unveiled a new sign at his headquarters in Menlo Park, California, replacing his thumbs up, or "Like" logo with a blue infinity shape.

The announcement of the change had seen Facebook shares close 1.5% higher at $316.92 on Thursday.

Bad Reputation

Facebook said this week that its hardware division, Facebook Reality Labs, which is in charge of AR and VR efforts, would become a separate reporting unit and that its investment in it would reduce its total operating profit this year by about $10 billion.

This year, Zuckerberg's company has created a product team in this unit, focused on the metaverse. They also recently announced plans to employ 10,000 employees in Europe over the next five years to work on the effort.

In an interview with the Information technology publication, Zuckerberg said he had not considered stepping down as CEO, and had not thought "very seriously" about leaving the unit.

The division will now be called Reality Labs, its chairman Andrew "Boz" Bosworth said last Thursday. The company will also stop using the Oculus brand for its VR headsets, instead calling them "Meta" products.

The name change, a plan first reported by The Verge, is a significant rebranding for Facebook, but not the first. In 2019 they also launched a new logo to make a difference between the company and its social apps.

The company's reputation has taken a major hit in recent years, including its handling of user data and reporting to police of abuse such as health misinformation, violent rhetoric and hate speech. The US Federal Trade Commission has also filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging anti-competitive practices.

"While it would help to reduce confusion by differentiating parent company Facebook from its founding app, the name change doesn't suddenly remove a systemic problem plaguing the company," said Mike Proulx, research director at market research firm Forrester.

The plan to remove the Facebook name even from products like the Portal video calling device shows that the company wants to prevent unprecedented surveillance rather than harm other apps, said Prashant Malaviya, a professor of marketing at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business.

"Without a doubt, (Facebook name) is definitely corrupt and toxic," he said.

Zuckerberg said the new name, which comes from the Greek word for "beyond", symbolizes there is always more to build on. Zuckerberg also said the new name also reflects that over time, users won't have to use Facebook to use the company's other services.

In 2015, Google reorganized to create a new parent company called Alphabet Inc, as the popular search engine entered new areas such as self-driving cars, high-speed broadband internet, and expanding its cloud business. Snapchat also changed its name to Snap Inc in 2016, the same year it launched its first pair of smart glasses.

Facebook, which this year launched its own smart glasses with Ray-Ban, announced a bunch of new AR and VR product updates during Connect. These include a way for people with Oculus VR headsets to call friends using Facebook Messenger and for people to invite others to the social version of their home, dubbed "Horizon Home."

Zuckerberg also showed a video demo of what the metaverse looks like, with people connected as avatars and taken to digital versions of different places and time periods. He says that the metaverse needs to be built with security and privacy in mind.