Facebook Changes Its Company Name to Meta

Facebook on Thursday unveiled its new name, Meta, which reflects its new focus on building out the metaverse.

During its Connect Conference on Thursday, the company detailed its ambitious plans for growing the metaverse, including Horizon Home, a virtual version of a home, realistic avatars, new immersive technology and virtual workspaces for collaboration around the world.

“From now on, we’re going to be metaverse first,” Zuckerberg said during the conference. “Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future. Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and identity on what we’re building toward.”

The company also announced a $150 million USD investment to train AR developers and said it planned to establish a professional curriculum program to teach creators how to build out the metaverse. It will also start trading under a new stock ticker, MVRS, on December 1.

Last week, The Verge first reported that Facebook was preparing to rebrand. The changes reflect the Facebook app’s place among the company’s wider tech ecosystem, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus.

Facebook first announced its plans to build out the metaverse — a term used to describe virtual, interactive spaces in the digital world — last month. As part of its plan, the company pledged a two-year, $50 million USD investment called the XR Programs and Research Fund aimed at subsidizing global research and program partners.

Facebook has also pledged to develop the metaverse “responsibly,” describing its plans for the metaverse as a place where users are “able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create and more.” It further explained that the metaverse doesn’t refer to one single product built by one company, but rather a shared global space.

On Monday, the company disclosed plans to spend about $10 billion USD investing in its branch that is working to develop the metaverse.