Facebook plans to change that name of the company next week to reflect its focus on metaverse development, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The upcoming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to present at Connect's annual conference on October 28, and could be unveiled earlier, is intended to signal the ambition of the largest social network in the metaverse sector.
The rebrand would probably position the Facebook app as one of many products of a parent company that oversees groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus and more.
Facebook already has more than 10.000 employees who make consumer hardware such as AR glasses that Zuckerberg believes will necessarily become like smartphones.
The new name could also be used to further separate the futuristic work that Zuckerberg is focusing on from Facebook's tight control over the way its social platform works. The former employee Frances Hagen, recently leaked a series of internal documents to The Wall Street journal και κατέθεσε για αυτά ενώπιον του Κογκρέσου. Οι αντιμονοπωλιακές ρυθμιστικές αρχές στις USA they're trying to break up the company, and the public's trust in how Facebook works isn't the same.
Facebook wouldn't be the first big-name tech company to change its name as its ambitions expand. In 2015, Google was completely reorganized under a holding company called Alphabet, in part to signal that it was no longer just a searching machine, but a huge conglomerate with companies that make self-driving cars and healthcare technology.