A report from The Verge indicates that Facebook will soon announce plans to rebrand its company name to “reflect its focus on building the metaverse.”
According to The Verge, the rebrand will be announced within the next week, potentially during or before Facebook Connect on the 28th. The Verge says the name rebrand could be unveiled before Connect, but either way Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to discuss the news at the conference next week.
The Verge says the change is “meant to signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail.” The rebrand would be similar to Google’s rebrand in 2015, where Google Search, Gmail and all the company’s other products and services fell under the umbrella of the new company name, Alphabet. In Facebook’s case, the new name may similarly represent a shift to an umbrella company brand that oversees all its different products, services and departments, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and of course, Oculus.
In Google’s case, the transition to Alphabet was made to signal that the company was no longer just the Google search engine. In Facebook’s case, a rebrand would likely be an attempt to signal that the company is no longer just the Facebook social media platform.
According to The Verge, the new company name is “a closely-guarded secret … and not known widely, even among its full senior leadership” but speculates that it could link to Horizon, the brand that connects Facebook’s upcoming social platform, Horizon Worlds (previously called Facebook Horizon), and its remote work VR platform, Horizon Workrooms.
Earlier this week, Facebook announced plans to hire 10,000 people across Europe to work on its take on the metaverse. Facebook’s Vice President of AR/VR, Andrew Bosworth, is also set to take on a bigger role in the company in 2022, transitioning to Chief Technology Officer in place of current CTO Mike Schroepfer.
