The company\u2019s new name indicates that it wants to be the face of the metaverse.<\/b>
\nFacebook, Inc. is now Meta Platforms, Inc. \u2014 Meta for short. At an event on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company is rebranding itself and focusing on building the \u201cmetaverse,\u201d a simulation in which people interact as avatars in real time. This new name signifies that Facebook doesn\u2019t want to just build this new, digital environment. It wants to be the face of it, too. \u201cFrom now on, we\u2019re going to be metaverse first, not Facebook first,\u201d Zuckerberg said at Facebook Connect, the company\u2019s virtual and augmented reality developer conference. \u201cAs our new brands start showing up in our products, I hope that people come to know the Meta brand and the future that we stand for.\u201d We don\u2019t know the full backstory behind Meta\u2019s new branding, which includes a logo that looks like a twisted infinity sign. When announcing the new name, Zuckerberg explained that he liked Meta because it\u2019s a Greek word that \u201csymbolizes there\u2019s always more to build.\u201d Perhaps coincidentally, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropy Zuckerberg founded with his wife, Priscilla Chan, acquired a startup called Meta that uses AI to aggregate scientific research, though the project\u2019s website says it\u2019s a separate entity from Facebook. Meta\u2019s most obvious connotation, of course, is with the metaverse itself. Aside from Zuckerberg\u2019s big name announcement, this year\u2019s Connect Conference focused on explaining how the metaverse and the technology that powers it will actually work. Through a series of colorful and highly animated demonstrations, the presentation focused on how people might play games, go to work, exercise, and even study in a virtual, three-dimensional environment, whenever it goes live. Zuckerberg also highlighted his company\u2019s efforts to build new products for the metaverse, including new virtual and augmented reality hardware, highly realistic digital avatars, and new video game experiences. And adopting the new name, the CEO explained, is meant to represent the importance of the new metaverse business, which will operate separately from Facebook\u2019s social media apps. Facebook\u2019s new focus on the metaverse comes seven years after the company purchased Oculus, which builds virtual reality headsets that allow people to play 3D virtual games. Andrew Bosworth, the company\u2019s vice president of augmented and virtual reality, also announced on Thursday that the Oculus name would be retired and that its hardware and apps will now operate under the Meta brand. While these VR headsets are still somewhat bulky and primarily popular among gamers, Facebook seems to think the technology could play a key role in the broader adoption of Horizon, a virtual reality platform that allows user avatars to interact with each other online. This, along with future innovations \u2014 possibly including augmented reality glasses that Bosworth\u2019s team has reportedly been developing \u2014 could eventually help create a foundation for the metaverse. The company formerly known as Facebook is pivoting to the metaverse as it faces a deluge of challenges, including a potential probe from the Federal Trade Commission and the ire of lawmakers concerned about the company\u2019s plans to build a kids\u2019 version of Instagram, which have been put on hold. The company is also facing a surge in critical media coverage fueled by the thousands of internal documents leaked by the Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen. The documents have given the public a new view into Facebook\u2019s internal operations and revealed the company\u2019s dismal record when it comes to combating hate speech, political polarization, and human trafficking, among other problems. But as Recode\u2019s Shirin Ghaffary explained last week, Facebook\u2019s new approach shows that the company doesn\u2019t think current challenges should deter its broader ambitions. In fact, Zuckerberg said as much in the conference\u2019s opening remarks. Still, the company seemed to indicate it had learned lessons from its experience running the world\u2019s largest social media platform. While developing the metaverse over the past few years, Facebook leaders insisted that the company would be a lot more cautious. Researchers will be consulted from the beginning, and privacy, interoperability, and openness will be built into Facebook\u2019s metaverse products from the outset, they said. \u201cYou want to know that when you buy something or create something, that your items will be useful in a lot of contexts and you\u2019re not gonna be locked into one world or platform,\u201d Zuckerberg said. \u201cIt\u2019s a future that is beyond any one company that will be made by all of us.\u201d But Facebook\u2019s new name suggests that the metaverse will primarily be made by Facebook, and might even be synonymous with the company. After all, much of the conference focused on how Facebook is getting the technology needed for the metaverse ready before this virtual reality system even launches. Whenever that happens, it won\u2019t be surprising when people think that the metaverse and Meta are the exact same thing.<\/p>\n