Facebook is no longer Facebook. The company is now shifting from being just a social media company to a new digital word, the “metaverse”. Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, had already hinted at a “transition” from “being a social media company to being a metaverse company” in the past few months. And now, after a lot of speculation, the company has rebranded to Meta on October 28 with a new logo replacing the iconic thumbs-up icon at the company’s global headquarters.
Facebook rebranding means the change of the company’s name from Facebook to Meta. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will keep their names while Facebook’s Oculus Quest will be rebranded as the Meta Quest. It’s rebranding is deemed similar to Google’s rebranding to “Alphabet” in 2015 by many people.
Now, what is metaverse? And what’s the concept behind this new name? Let’s have a look!
Metaverse? What is that?
The term metaverse originated in 1992 from Neal Stephenson’s sci-fi novel Snow Crash, which was about people who enter a “metaverse” to connect with people. Now how does this apply outside of the world of fiction, you may think? In the real world, it actually implies the use of extended reality (virtual, augmented, and mixed reality) to create a shared 3-D online space.
While announcing the rebranding of Facebook, the company’s CEO explained what will be the future like with the metaverse. He wrote, “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.”
Although the idea of metaverse sounds mind-blowing and hints at the future of the internet, it still seems far-fetched as of now. Experts believe that extended reality, which is a combination of augmented and virtual reality, will play a crucial role in carving its future. But it highly depends on how accessible they are. The extended reality, such as virtual reality, is still out of reach of a majority, with so many factors hindering its mass adoption.
Metaverse might happen in the future, but practically, it does not even exist at present!
Why is Facebook Rebranding Happening?
With Facebook’s rebranding to Meta to build a metaverse, many people are confused about why it is actually happening. People believe that Facebook, sorry Meta, has bigger problems to consider. One of them is the release of internal documents by the whistleblower Frances Haugen. Critics are considering it as an attempt to divert the attention of the people from the leaked information about its toxicity and to cover up the negativity.
Furthermore, the metaverse is still an idea of the ‘future’ and does not have any solid basis as yet. Lastly, many people are pointing out the failure of other Big Tech rebranding, such as Google, implying their dissatisfaction.
With all these confusions, people are still wondering if this change is necessary for the company?
Wrapping Up!
If Meta succeeds in its endeavor, then it might be able to carve a new technological future. /Facebook rebranding is pointing towards the future with extended reality, which still has to come a long way before it becomes impactful. We will have to wait and see what happens and how it goes!
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Last Modified: July 3, 2024 at 9:51 am
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