As part of its refocus on virtual reality, Facebook changes its name to Meta

 Facebook Inc is now called Meta, the enterprise stated on Thursday, in a rebrand that makes a speciality of its targets building the "metaverse," a shared virtual environment that it bets can be the following large computing platform.

The call change comes as the world's largest social media business enterprise battles criticisms from lawmakers and regulators over its marketplace power, algorithmic selections and the policing of abuses on its structures.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, talking on the agency's live-streamed digital and augmented reality convention, stated the brand new call contemplated its pursuits to build the metaverse, as opposed to its namesake social media service.

The metaverse, a time period first coined in a dystopian novel 3 many years ago and now attracting buzz in Silicon Valley, refers broadly to the idea of a shared digital environment which may be accessed by humans using exceptional gadgets.

"Right now, our brand is so tightly related to one product that it cannot likely constitute everything that we're doing today, not to mention in the destiny," stated Zuckerberg.

The organisation, which has invested closely in augmented and virtual truth, stated the exchange could bring together its special apps and technology below one new brand. It stated it would not exchange its company structure.

The tech massive, which reports approximately 2.Nine billion monthly users, has faced growing scrutiny in current years from worldwide lawmakers and regulators.

In the trendy controversy, whistleblower and former Facebook worker Frances Haugen leaked files which she stated confirmed the employer selected profit over person safety. Zuckerberg in advance this week stated the documents were being used to color a "fake photograph." The corporation stated in a weblog put up that it intends to start buying and selling beneath the brand new stock ticker it has reserved, MVRS, on Dec. 1. On Thursday, it unveiled a brand new sign at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, replacing its thumbs-up "Like" logo with a blue infinity form.

Facebook shares had been up extra than three% late on Thursday afternoon.

Facebook stated this week that its hardware division Facebook Reality Labs, that is accountable for AR and VR efforts, might turn out to be a separate reporting unit and that its funding in it'd reduce this year's general working income by using about $10 billion.

In an interview with tech booklet the Information, Zuckerberg stated he has not taken into consideration stepping down as CEO, and has now not idea "very significantly yet" about spinning off this unit.

The department will now be referred to as Reality Labs, its head Andrew "Boz" Bosworth said on Thursday. The employer will also stop the usage of the Oculus branding for its VR headsets, as a substitute calling them "Meta" products.

This yr, the corporation created a product crew centered at the metaverse and it these days announced plans to rent 10,000 personnel in Europe over the subsequent five years to paintings at the effort.

The organisation has had multiple hits to its reputation over recent years, inclusive of over its managing of consumer records and its policing of abuses along with fitness misinformation, violent rhetoric and hate speech. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has additionally filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging anticompetitive practices.

"While it's going to help alleviate confusion by using distinguishing Facebook’s figure enterprise from its founding app, a call exchange doesn’t unexpectedly erase the systemic issues plaguing the company," said Forrester Research Director Mike Proulx.

Zuckerberg said the brand new call, coming from the Greek word for "beyond," symbolized there has been constantly more to build. Twitter Inc CEO Jack Dorsey on Thursday tweeted out a extraordinary definition "referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential."

Zuckerberg said the new call also displays that over the years, customers will now not need to apply Facebook to use the corporation's different offerings.