Facebook apparently plans to change its name to something that is more indicative of the metaverse brand that Mark Zuckerberg is trying to build, according to a report published by The Verge on Tuesday.
Zuckerberg plans to talk about the name change on Oct. 28, during Facebook's Connect conference. The information was given to Verge by “someone with direct knowledge of the matter.”
The metaverse is essentially a shared virtual world that is accessed by means of virtual reality or augmented reality.
Mark Zuckerberg
| File photo
Gene Munster, managing partner and co-founder of Loup Ventures, a research-driven venture capital firm based in Minneapolis and New York that invests in frontier tech companies, told The Globe Banner that this is a major step for the social media titan.
“Yes, Facebook is staking its future on the metaverse, the environment where people will connect and advertisers want to be there,” Munster said.
Zuckerberg has said “we will effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company.”
This rebrand could also help the company handle some of the seemingly endless criticism that has intensified in recent months. This move would put Facebook in the company of Google and Snapchat, which created parent companies Alphabet and Snap Inc., respectively.
Referring to the metaverse, Zuckerberg told The Verge that it is “going to be a big focus, and I think that this is just going to be a big part of the next chapter for the way that the Internet evolves after the mobile Internet. And I think it’s going to be the next big chapter for our company too, really doubling down in this area.”
That “next big chapter” is still being written, and most consumers are still struggling to grasp what the metaverse will mean to them and the world. Will it involve gaming? Virtual office meetings? Social gatherings?
“We are still a decade away from understanding exactly what the metaverse is,” Munster said. “That said, most of the things we do in the real world will also be done in the metaverse. That includes work, office, meetings, entertainment.”
Facebook has recently invested heavily in the metaverse concept that Zuckerberg is trying to make a reality. Earlier this month the company announced it will create 10,000 jobs in the European Union over the next five years to focus specifically on building Facebook's metaverse.
“At its heart is the idea that by creating a greater sense of ‘virtual presence,’ interacting online can become much closer to the experience of interacting in person,” according to a statement from Facebook.
Facebook hopes it can create one metaverse that may be interoperable with others, but understands it will not be the only company creating such an innovation.
Munster said his firm believes Facebook will become a dominant figure in this brave new online world.
“We don't think of the metaverse as a market share question,” he said. “Rather it’s a question of will Facebook have a big business within it. The answer is likely, yes, Facebook will have a massive metaverse ad business.”
Before forming Loup Ventures, Munster was a managing director and senior research analyst at Chicago-based Piper Jaffray. He focused on technology companies including Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook.
Munster holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and entrepreneurship from University of St. Thomas.