Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the social media giant will change the company's name to Meta, in a rebrand that comes as the company faces an ongoing series of public relations crises.
Zuckerberg made the announcement at Facebook's annual conference on Thursday, where he outlined his vision for metaverse – a digital world built on ours that incorporates elements of digital reality. “We believe that metaverse will be the successor to mobile internet,” said Zuckerberg.
The new holding company Meta will include Facebook, its largest subsidiary, as well as applications such as Instagram, WhatsApp and virtual reality company Oculus.
Facebook invested $ 10 billion in the metaverse project in 2021.
The company announced that its digital reality division had grown so significantly that it will now rank its revenue separately, dividing its products into two categories.
The two categories
These categories include an “application family” including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp and “reality lab” products including AR and VR, as well as any related material.
In a presentation from his home, Zuckerberg described his vision for metaverse as a digital world in which users will feel like they are with each other and have a “sense of presence” despite being too far away. The platform will allow users to customize their avatars and digital spaces by decorating a digital desk with photos, videos and even books.
“When I send a video to my parents with my children, they will feel it's right now,” he said.
