Imagine waking up one day to learn that the popular name, Facebook is no more?
The popular social media company, Facebook Inc that houses the Facebook.com, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp effect on the majority on the world populace cannot be adequately quantified in words, this was evident in the associated global disarray when the 3 major apps under the Facebook infrastructure went down weeks back: It looked like a mini rapture!
Such is the impact of the Mark Zuckerberg owned platforms.
Popular science and tech site, The Verge has reported that the brand is mulling the plan to officially change it company name by next week to showcase its focus on the building of the metaverse.
A Metaverse in the layman’s terms is a virtual reality-space that allows users to interact with a computer-generated environment and other users in that environment.
American writer and New York bestselling author, Neal Stephenson had in the year 1992 famously coined the word ‘metaverse’ in his then classic ‘Snow Crash’ and had in that book referred to a 3D virtual world inhabited by avatars of real people. Even though there were other science fiction work of art that features metaverse-like systems, that of Neal Stephenson was the most popular reference point when defining the term ‘metaverse’.
It’s no news that Facebook is latching on this to build a future virtual reality world and despite details of the project vastly unclear to the layman, it is believed enormous work is in progress to achieve the vision and in some cases the fantasies of Mark Zuckerberg.
It is on the aegis of this that a name change for the Facebook brand seemed inevitable- at least to the idea ‘think-thank’. The intended name change, which has Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg planning to make an agenda at the October 28 Facebook’s Annual Connect, is mooted to signal the social media powerhouse ambition to be known more than just the social media but for the virtual reality on a bigger scale.
The name change and rebranding would position the popular Facebook app as just one of the many products under a parent company that will include other apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus and many more.
The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th, but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail. The rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and more. A spokesperson for Facebook declined to comment for this story.
With Facebook aiming to transition to becoming a metaverse company, the rebranding would effectively serve to separate the futuristic agenda the company is focused on, away from the intense scrutiny the platform has been subjected to recently. TechBooky had reported that former employee, Frances Haugen had leaked a litany of damning internal documents to the Wall Street Journal and has also testified against the company before the United States Congress. This had prompted CEO Zuckerberg to respond to Frances’s claim positing that the assertions ‘doesn’t make any sense’ but in spite of this rebuttal, the public trust and perception of the company is on an all time low.
According to The Verge, Facebook has been steadily laying the groundwork for a bigger focus on the next-gen as it has in the past summer set up a dedicated metaverse team. The company has also recently announced the promotion of Andrew Bosworth, the head of the AR and VR of the company, to the position of Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer. Not done with that, the company announced plans to hire 10,000 more employees to work on the metaverse in Europe.
While highlighting the importance of his plans, Zuckerberg had recently told The Verge’s Casey Newtonthat:
“The metaverse is going to be a big focus, and I think that this is just going to be a big part of the next chapter for the way that the internet evolves after the mobile internet. And I think it’s going to be the next big chapter for our company too, really doubling down in this area.”
It remains to be seen how the teeming idealists and lovers of the brand will react and adopt the proposed name change.
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals.He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
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