Internet giant Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has revealed its plans to change the company’s name, with an announcement believed to arrive in the next few days, before the Connect conference in October. The move is seen as an attempt to position CEO Mark Zuckerberg as the creator of the metaverse.
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Announcement
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to discuss the rebranding of the company at Connect, its annual conference to take place on October 28. However, according to a report by The Verge on Tuesday, the new name could be unveiled earlier.
In response to this information, Facebook said it does not comment on “rumors or speculation.”
With the move, the company is looking to position the Facebook platform as one of several products from a parent company, which at present owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and more.
The name change comes at a time when Facebook has furthered its plans to create the metaverse –a virtual reality project that is hogging the company’s attention and resources at present.
Zuckerberg had earlier told The Verge that the metaverse 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.”
The Metaverse
At present, Facebook’s AR glasses and other similar hardware are being created by more than 10,000 company employees, as Zuckerberg himself says that this type of product will ultimately be part of people’s everyday life.
Metaverse, the digital world project, will use a further 10,000 people the company is planning to hire in the European Union in the next five years. Similar projects are currently being developed by rivals Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Roblox Corp (NYSE:RBLX), and Epic.
“We will effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company,” he said back in July.
Facebook is part of the Entrepreneur Index, which tracks 60 of the largest publicly traded companies managed by their founders or their founders’ families.
