In a rather interesting development, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed on Thursday his social media platform is poised to officially change its corporate name to Meta.
This was confirmed by the Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) boss in a blog post that said that the company will trade under a new stock ticker, “MVRS,” starting early December.
The company decided to rebrand because its current “Facebook” name does not encompass everything in its future ambitions, according to the CEO. He added that henceforth the tech giant will be referred to as “metaverse-first, not Facebook-first.”
Zuckerberg, while speaking at the Facebook Connect virtual reality conference, further said:
Today we are seen as a social media company, but in our DNA, we are a company that builds technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started.
“This is not an investment that is going to be profitable for us anytime in the near future […] however, the metaverse will be the holy grail of social experiences.” said Zuckerberg, who believes the company’s $10 billion investment will grow even larger in the coming years.
The firm’s decision to rebrand itself comes amid a cascade of ongoing criticism faced by the company. The most recent controversy is related to the leak of thousands of internal documents from whistleblower Frances Haugen, suggesting that Facebook conned its investors and the public about its handling of misinformation and hate speech on its platforms.
However, Zuckerberg expressed his opinion concerning the current controversy. He said:
Nothing to bear on this. Even though I think some people might want to make that connection, I think that’s sort of a ridiculous thing. If anything, I think that this is not the environment that you would want to introduce a new brand in.