It’s official: Facebook’s new name is Meta.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement at the end of the company’s Connect conference, which was dedicated to its grand vision for its augmented and virtual reality products. In his concluding remarks, he stressed the company’s focus on developing its metaverse before announcing the name "Meta."
"Over time I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company," Zuckerberg said. "I want to anchor our work and our identity in what we’re building towards."
"Our mission remains the same; it’s still about bringing people together," he added.
Ahead of Facebook’s big product event on Thursday, the company covered up its iconic "like" sign outside of its offices in Menlo Park, California with a giant canvas that also shows the thumbs up symbol. This threw fuel onto the raging fire of speculation that the social media giant planned to adopt a new name.
The sign at Facebook's HQ is currently covered by a canvas presumably in anticipation of its name change.
Any last guesses before the reveal? pic.twitter.com/m178QXrX4F
— Morning Brew ☕️ (@MorningBrew) October 28, 2021
Interestingly, Meta was a name speculated by the company’s former civic integrity chief Samidh Chakrabarti last week.
"My best guess for the new name: ‘Meta,'" Chakrabarti wrote on Twitter.
The tweet proved to be downright prescient as the company is now shifting its focus to pursue its ambitious goal of establishing a metaverse.
Throughout the Connect conference, Zuckerberg unveiled the company’s latest innovations in VR and AR technology. He also dove deeper into his goals for the metaverse and Meta’s future.
The metaverse itself looks to be a massive, new online platform that'll allow users to create digital avatars, work from virtual offices with remote coworkers, and even use holographic versions of themselves to play games and hang out with friends. It also appears to be focused on creating detailed overlays over existing physical spaces.
The platform will also include a virtual version of Facebook Marketplace, where you'll be able to sell digital products and services.
"We have a new north star: to help bring the metaverse to life," he said. "And we have a new name that reflects the full breadth of what we do and the future we want to help build."
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