Facebook has rebranded itself as Meta in an attempt to own the metaverse, a concept for a 3D version of the internet that a number of companies are working on

Because Facebook, whose products are used by more than 3 billion people globally, has decided to rename itself, expect a lot of uncertainty in the coming months. Everything you need to know is right here.

What has happened?

On October 28, Facebook, the business that controls platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, was renamed as Meta, ending months of uncertainty. "Right now, our brand is so firmly attached to one product that it can't reasonably reflect all that we're doing now, let alone in the future," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the company's annual Connect conference. I'd want to see us become known as a metaverse firm over time, and I'd like to base our work and identity on that."
It's worth noting that Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram will all retain their original identities. However, the firm that creates and maintains them will now be known as Meta, akin to Google's 2015 organizational reorganization into Alphabet. On October 28, Facebook (the firm) even altered its logo outside its office.

Sorry, what is a metaverse?

The name was picked to mimic the major product that Zuckerberg thinks to symbolize Facebook – now Meta: the metaverse, a shared online 3D virtual place that a lot of firms are interested in constructing as a type of future version of the internet.

In a letter announcing Facebook's renaming as Meta, Zuckerberg said, "In the future, you will be able to teleport quickly as a hologram to be at the workplace without a commute, at a concert with pals, or in your parent's living room to catch up."

However, it will happen in the future. Not right now. The company's metaverse, which was presented last August, resembles The Sims or another immersive world: the 2003 computer game Second Life.

Why is Zuckerberg doing this?

Meta doesn't want to be known exclusively as a social networking platform, for one reason. "My suspicion is that this is about owning the operating system of the future, and Facebook's experience as an app on other people's – rivals' – operating systems," says Georgetown University Law Center's Anupam Chander. "They don't want to be held captive on someone else's platform." They aim to hold people hostage on their platform.”
Although Meta made veiled allusions to Apple in its introduction, claiming it didn't want a single corporation to limit what people can do and charge hefty fees, University of Oxford's Max Van Kleek is skeptical that Meta will have control over its metaverse.

"Will Meta just supply the tools rather than acting as a gatekeeper?" "I doubt they'd give up anything that may jeopardize their position as the metaverse's definitive advertisement source, for example," Van Kleek adds.

What happens if Meta succeeds?

One problem with Meta's attempt to be the sole firm supporting the metaverse is the significant role it would play in our lives if its vision of the future becomes a reality. In recent months, the firm has suffered from outages on its core applications, which have rendered big portions of the world unable to interact — and the ramifications of such an event in an all-pervasive VR reality like the metaverse might be enormous.

"The metaverse is presented in such an idealistic and naïve way," adds Bucher. “It makes a lot of broad assumptions about how individuals spend their lives,” says one reviewer. I'm sure it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea to have it in their living room."

"They aim to conquer yet another globe," Chander explains. "Now that they've controlled the physical world, they aim to dominate the virtual metaverse."

thanks for reading

@the.big