Facebook is reportedly planning on rebranding and is set to announce a new company name next week, according to The Verge.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg intends to announce the new name at the Facebook Connect conference on Oct. 28, a source familiar with the matter told The Verge. The rebrand is reportedly an attempt by Zuckerberg to shift public perception of the company as a social media platform to a technology conglomerate with several different products beyond the Facebook social network.
Zuckerberg announced his intent in June to transform Facebook from a social media company to a “metaverse” company within the next few years, focusing on the company’s physical, virtual and augmented reality products such as the Oculus and Ray-Ban Stories glasses. The term “metaverse” refers to a shared virtual or digital environment in which individuals can interact with one another in the form of avatars.
Zuckerberg told The Verge that he views the metaverse as “the successor to the mobile internet” and as a “persistent, synchronous environment where we can be together.”
The planned name change follows a series of controversies and Congressional scrutiny of Facebook’s business practices beginning in July related to the company’s handling of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. The company drew further attention following Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s leaks of internal documents to The Wall Street Journal detailing the tech giant’s content moderation practices and its knowledge of the potential harms its platforms have on teen users.
Search giant Google adopted a similar strategy in 2015, when it changed its name to Alphabet, and operated as a parent company with the search engine as one of its many properties.
Very few individuals within Facebook are aware of what the new name will be, The Verge reported, but the name could be announced sooner than Oct. 28. One potential name is “Horizon,” the outlet reported.
Facebook did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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