FACELIFT

This Is Facebook’s New Name

The company formerly known as Facebook has rebranded with a new name to reflect a focus on the metaverse, whatever that means.

Problem solved. The company formerly known as Facebook is no more, rebranded as Meta, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday. The new name ostensibly aims to reflect the company’s pivot towards building the metaverse. Naturally, that move also reflects a slightly more desperate pivot away from social media—and all the legal, ethical, and financial quandaries that has entailed for the giant over the years. “The metaverse is the next frontier. From now on, we’re going to be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first,” Zuckerberg said at Facebook’s Connect conference on Thursday. The company will trade stocks under the ticker MVRS from next month.

The new name will operate as an umbrella brand or proto-parent company for its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp. Zuckerberg said in a July interview with The Verge that his goal was to “effectively transition” towards a reputation as a company focused on the metaverse, a nebulous term that still isn’t well-defined or widely understood. It’s just an added perk, too, that a rebranding could also draw public scrutiny away from Facebook’s litany of gaffes in recent years, including privacy scandals, whistleblowers, and antitrust probes.