Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, is set to announce the new name later this week at the Facebook Connect 2021 conference. Facebook Connect will take place on Thursday 28th October, with keynote speaker Zuckerberg taking the stage at 10am Pacific Time. Facebook Connect’s website said this about the keynote speech:
“The future is yours to imagine. Join Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives as they share the vision for the metaverse—a place of new immersive experiences and the next evolution of social technology, built by people like you.”
Zuckerberg has had an obsession with his new vision of the metaverse, and Facebook is a big part of that. Back in July in an interview with The Verge, Zuckerberg said “we will effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company.”
But what is a metaverse? What is the concept that Zuckerberg keeps fantasising about? Global News define it as:
“Metaverse is a broad term. It generally refers to shared virtual world environments which people can access via the internet. The term can refer to digital spaces which are made more lifelike by the use of virtual reality or augmented reality.”
The term metaverse can also be used when describing gaming worlds. Users immersing themselves in a new universe where they have a character that can explore and interact with other players. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts will also be familiar with metaverses, as they buy, sell and trade crypto, non-fungible tokens (NFT) and other digital assets.
This rebrand and metaverse integration is all part of Facebook’s plan to be seen as more than just a social media platform. We wont know for sure until the 28th October, but some are speculating that we could see Facebook as one of many products under this new look company, positioning it alongside Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus that Facebook currently owns.
Facebook currently has over 10,000 employees working on the next big tech breakthroughs, like augmented reality (AR) glasses that Zuckerberg hopes will eventually be the next smartphone.
Facebook has had its fair share of criticism over the past few years. When we hear the name Facebook, many will think of data leaks, server failures and videos of Zuckerberg in congress. This name change won’t make all of this go away, but Zuckerberg may be hoping it will help change the public perception.
Some are speculating the possible name change, with the names ‘Horizon’ to suggest a future with no limits. Another one floating around is ‘Meta’ to tie in with the metaverse. Facebook already seems to own the domain “meta.com” so that would be our best bet.
We won’t have to wait long to find out. Register here to watch it live and hear first-hand from Mark himself about Facebook’s future. As mentioned earlier, he will be making his keynote speech on Thursday 28th October at 10am Pacific Time, which is 6pm UK time.
