Social media group: Facebook is now called Meta

Facebook becomes “Meta”: CEO Zuckerberg wants to build a “Metaverse” with the social media giant. For observers, this is above all a dream of the future. However, some also see the step as a diversionary maneuver.

Nothing will change for the almost three billion users worldwide on Facebook or other apps such as Whatsapp and Instagram. The group is only giving itself a new umbrella brand. That is more of a cosmetic, there is no reorganization.

Speaking at the in-house Connect conference, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said it was time to revamp the company’s identity to reflect its broader ambitions.

It is time we adopted a new corporate brand that encompasses everything we do to reflect who we are and what we hope to build. I am proud to announce that from today our company is called Meta.

Facebook well positioned for “Metaversum”

The “metaverse” has been the fashion word in Silicon Valley for months. Game platforms such as Roblox, in which young people can immerse themselves in a virtual world, are pioneers. With Fortnite, the game company Epic offers a virtual world in which even music concerts are streamed. But money should also be earned with digital goods and services in the future, own currencies are also conceivable.

Facebook or the new meta is best positioned in Silicon Valley, because it already has its own digital currency – the Diem – and, with its company Oculus, manufactures VR glasses that could become essential for the new Internet world.

Above all, Metaversum is a dream of the future

With the new name, Zuckerberg also wants to make it clear that the group wants to play an important role in the design of this “extended Internet”.

Building our social media apps will always be an important focus for us. But right now our brand is so closely associated with a product that it cannot possibly represent everything we do today, let alone in the future.

As beautiful and exciting as Zuckerberg presents the metaverse with its virtual work and leisure worlds, at the moment it is one thing above all: a dream of the future. Silicon Valley investor Matthew Ball is considered a thought leader when it comes to Metaversum. He estimates that it could take decades before such a mega-network is actually set up because today’s Internet bandwidths are simply too narrow.

A gigantic diversionary maneuver?

The transition to a metaverse will happen gradually, Ball said in an interview with the ARD. As an example, he cites the mobile Internet, which has been around since the mid-1990s.

It wasn’t until the late 2000s that mobile internet became important to the masses with the iPhone. And it is only for five or six years that companies have seen it as the dominant method of distribution. Many companies are now even thinking ‘Mobile First’ and are only on their smartphones. We expect a certain transition phase.

For the tech world in Silicon Valley, Zuckerberg’s step is consistent and logical. But there are also many who see it as a gigantic diversionary maneuver for the 37-year-old. The company has been criticized for weeks in the United States for handling hate speech and misinformation.

The statements of the former Facebook employee Frances Haugen before the US Congress were devastating for the image. In rare unanimity, Democrats and Republicans are currently considering how they can oblige tech companies, especially Facebook, to take on more responsibility. There is still talk of breaking up.