Facebook aims to announce the rebranding at its Connect conference on October 28th, but it may do so sooner. It’s expected that the blue Facebook app will be repositioned as just one of many products under a parent company that also oversees companies such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus, among others. For the sake of the article, a Facebook official declined to comment.
More than 10,000 Facebook employees are already working on hardware like augmented reality glasses, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts will become as common as smartphones. Over the next few years, the company wants to move from being largely a social network company to a metaverse firm.
This could also help to isolate Zuckerberg’s futuristic projects from the heavy scrutiny that Facebook is now receiving for how its social network currently operates. An ex-employee turned whistleblower named Frances Haugen recently disclosed to The Wall Street Journal and testified before Congress about a cache of embarrassing internal information concerning the company. The US and international antitrust officials are attempting to break up Facebook, and public confidence in the company’s business practices is eroding.
Not for the first time, a well-known IT company has renamed itself to reflect its expanding goals. By consolidating under Alphabet’s umbrella as a conglomerate in 2015, Google signalled it was more than a search engine but also included businesses such as those developing driverless cars and health care technology. It was the same year that Snapchat began calling itself a “camera company” and unveiled its first set of camera-equipped eyewear, the Spectacles.
Based on top information, and even among Facebook’s top executives, the new corporate name is a closely guarded secret. The company has been working on a VR version of Facebook-meets-Roblox called Horizon for several years; this could be a possible name. The app’s name was recently changed to Horizon Worlds after Facebook demonstrated Horizon Workrooms, a version for office collaboration.
Beyond Zuckerberg’s remarks, Facebook has been steadily building the basis for an increased concentration on the next generation of technologies. It formed a metaverse team just last summer. As of late, Andrew Bosworth, the company’s head of AR/VR, has been promoted to chief technology officer. In addition, Facebook has announced plans to hire 10,000 more staff in Europe to work on the metaverse.
Even while Facebook has been extensively advertising the concept of the metaverse recently, it’s still not commonly understood. This further complicates things. Author Neal Stephenson first used the word to depict a virtual environment where individuals might escape from the realities of a dismal future. In the next years, it will have to justify why its own virtual world is worthwhile for one of the world’s largest and most controversial enterprises to adopt it.
(InnovationVillage)
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