Last week the world witnessed a significant rebrand of the digital giant Facebook to the new name ‘Meta.’ The CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, came up with a solid explanation of this rebranding of the tech giant and its further movement to explore the virtual universe. However, its made clear that the company will only change its name while Facebook, Instagram, etc., will retain its identity. Let’s dive more into this major change of the tech giant.
Why did Facebook change its name to Meta?
The company announced the new name ‘Meta’: in the Connect 2021 conference where Zuckerberg, the brain behind Facebook and current CEO at ‘Meta’ wants to put his hands more into virtual reality than social media. He said about ‘metaverse’ that the company is focusing on making possible in the future and didn’t want to limit it to a name with the miniature vastness of what they are doing. Google had also changed its company name to Alphabet in 2015; Facebook adopted the same strategy. Though the critics claim that Facebook is trying to deviate from data piracy and privacy allegations, we don’t have clear information available on this.
What is a metaverse?
Metaverse is an online space or a virtual realm where people can work together, play, purchase things, etc. It opens up new possibilities to socialize, connect and collaborate with anyone all around the globe and evolution of social connections.
In Greek the word meta means “beyond.” Metaverse is a virtual world where people can enter without barriers of boundaries, interconnecting the digital environment. Its typically to go beyond the internet with avatars, digital gadgets, teleporting, etc. Interoperability remains the biggest challenge of a metaverse where any good you buy in the virtual world should work in any part of it, which is an arduous task.
Do we enjoy privacy in a metaverse?
Well, we all know the issues of Facebook when it comes to user privacy. Team “Meta,” say that their metaverse will stick to user safety policies.
Still, most of them assume this rebranding strategy is to divert the attention of mainstream media from the privacy controversies and sudden breakdown of its social media apps for hours. The current leakage of documents regarding its disrupted algorithm created tension all over the world. Also, the “Metaverse” Zuckerberg is keen to make is not a reality yet; it sounds like science fiction for most communities down in the digital world.
Facebook and Instagram are the advertising giants, and shifting their focus to a long-term project with no guarantee seems skeptical. When we look back, we see that the rebranding of Google to Alphabet was a failure in gaining recognition among the masses. Maybe Zuckerberg wants a different experience for the users, and let’s wait for another new surprise!