Facebook badly needs positive headlines. The revelations of detective Francis Hauge seriously damaged the group. Now the name change should help reorganize the tech giant.
Menlo Park – Facebook wants to change its company name, according to a media report. In order to focus on the virtual world “Metaverse”, there will be a name change next week, US technology portal “The Verge” reported on Wednesday.
The gateway, which is considered to be well connected to the network, refers to a source who “has direct knowledge of the matter”. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wanted to talk about it at the company’s Connect conference on October 28. The change should signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than just social media.
The Facebook group not only owns the actual Facebook service, which has a blue and white logo as a smartphone app, but also the messaging service WhatsApp and the photo and video service Instagram. Oculus is still part of the Facebook empire. The division manufactures virtual reality glasses, including the Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest lines.
According to the report, the group’s renaming is likely to position the blue Facebook app as one of many products from a parent company that oversees groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and more. When asked, Facebook said they did not want to comment on the speculation.
Facebook will not be the first company in Silicon Valley to change its company name if the direction of the company expands. For example, after introducing the first iPhone in 2007, Apple removed the word “computer” from the company’s name. At the time, the iPod music player alone was selling more than Macintosh computers.
Google reorganized itself in 2015 under the umbrella of a holding company called Alphabet. The internet company wanted to point out that it not only runs a search engine and cloud business, but also has ambitions for self-driving cars, health solutions, and other high-tech fields. Snapchat renamed itself Snap Inc. In 2016. At the same time, the company began to call itself “The Camera Company”.
By changing the name of the group, Facebook will assert its ambitions that go beyond traditional social networks. Months ago, for example, Zuckerberg announced the creation of the “Metaverse”. It is meant to be a virtual environment as seen in science fiction novels. Zuckerberg believes that this is no longer just a dream due to the rapid development of devices and glasses for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). On Monday, the company announced that it will create 10,000 new highly qualified jobs in the European Union over the next five years in order to build the virtual world, “Metaverse”. dpa
