Facebook Rebrand Under a New Name: Meta

Facebook, the beleaguered social media company, has announced that is renaming itself under a new parent company name called Meta.

It was reported earlier this month that Facebook was interested in rebranding itself in order to divorce itself from being seen as “just a social media company.” Instead, as founder Mark Zuckerberg spent an hour explaining, the company’s big focus is the Metaverse.

This is why Facebook has appropriately renamed itself as Meta, a company that will focus on the metaverse and other future technologies. Meanwhile, social media services like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will become brands under the Meta umbrella.

In fact, Zuckerberg announced that in the future, customers will not have to use Facebook at all to work with its Metaverse products. To sideline its flagship app is a dramatic step for the former social media company.

Rebranding is not new in the tech industry. Google, for example, created a parent company called Alphabet to which Google is just one brand under its umbrella. Likewise, Meta will exist as an umbrella company where historic Facebook brands exist and new metaverse technologies will be developed under.

He said the existing brand could not “possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future”, and needed to change.

But at the end of the day, a new name will not change Facebook or Instagram. But it’s clear that Zuckerberg’s interest is now fully invested in the metaverse, not social media.

“Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we’re building towards,” he told a virtual conference.

“We’re now looking at and reporting on our business as two different segments, one for our family of apps, and one for our work on future platforms.

“And as part of this, it is time for us to adopt a new company brand to encompass everything that we do, to reflect who we are and what we hope to build.”

The company also unveiled a new sign at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Thursday, replacing its thumbs-up “Like” logo with a blue infinity shape.

Mr Zuckerberg said the new name reflects that over time, users will not need to use Facebook to use the company’s other services.

By Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

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