New Name In Store For Facebook, Rebranding Underway

The company’s name change will apparently “reflect its focus on building the metaverse,” according to sources.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans on discussing the name change on October 28th at the company’s Connect conference, although details of the change could come sooner. Facebook appears to be trying to move beyond the negative associations with its social media platform, and will likely transition the Facebook app under a newly constructed parent company. If this is the case, other apps like Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus will likely fall under the rebrand as well.

Facebook has come under scrutiny in recent years for the way its platform operates. Public trust appears to have gone down, as criticism about what types of content get promoted and moderated has increased. Despite this, it appears that instead of mitigating concerns about the happenings of Facebook, Zuckerberg’s goals are focused on the future. He’s mentioned before that the metaverse is the “next big chapter” for the company.

What the metaverse actually is isn’t quite clear. The term, which was originally attributed to Neal Stephenson, references a digital world that people immerse themselves into in order to escape from a dystopian real world.

Not much is currently known about the new name of the tech conglomerate, even amongst leadership. There is speculation that, based on an unreleased VR app from the company, the name may have Horizon somewhere in the title. It seems we’ll have to wait for the conference in order to know more about what this specific expression means to Zuckerberg.