Facebook Goes All in on Metaverse With Name Change

Facebook has followed through with its promise to change its name. Mark Zuckerberg’s company will now go by the name Meta as a signal that the famous CEO wants to move beyond social media platforms and into the metaverse, a virtual world in which science and technology converge. Indeed, Zuckerberg stated that the company’s new mission will be “metaverse first, not Facebook first.”

The company still plans on helping people to connect but just doing it in the metaverse this time. It will be a “hybrid” experience of being online, three dimensional and the physical world. While the name of the parent company is changing, the popular app brands will remain intact, including “Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.”

Meta will pour $10 billion into helping to build the metaverse. Zuckerberg had recently tipped his hand to a rebranding as well as his desire to participate in the metaverse. And while the company is already behind its own version of a stablecoin, Diem, market leaders suggest it would not be too farfetched to see Meta come fact to face with bitcoin in the future.

🚨 Wow big live news! Mark Zuckerberg just announced #Meta… a whole new brand for @Facebook. Facebook is now "metaverse first"! It's pretty impressive tech and commitment from the largest social network. At some point, Meta will meet #Bitcoin. That's my prediction. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/NKb9KQQtEX

— Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) October 28, 2021

Facebook’s name change comes as the brand has been under fire from a whistleblower, Frances Haugen, who has been shedding light on her view of the tainted corporate culture in testimony to U.S. Senators.

The Metaverse Frontier

Facebook unveiled its new Meta brand at the Facebook Connect 2021 all-digital event. Meta is a reflection of Zuckerberg’s bullish outlook on the metaverse. Zuckerberg stated,

“Today we are seen as a social media company, but in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started.”

Meta Stock

Not only is Facebook’s name changing, but so too is its ticker symbol. The company will now trade under the stock symbol MVRS, effective Dec. 1. Meta will also overhaul the way that it reports its financial results, comprising two separate segments dubbed Family of Apps and Reality Labs, starting in Q4. Investors cheered the move, sending the stock 1.5% higher in response to the name change.

The rebranding of Facebook into a metaverse-focused entity comes as Donald Trump’s new social media empire, Trump Media and Technology Group, is poised to launch. Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp, the SPAC entity that will bring Trump’s company public, soared 12% on the day, showing investors are not spooked by the competition.