The new name reflects the company's growing ambitions beyond social media. Facebook, now known as Meta, has adopted the new moniker, based on the sci-fi term metaverse, to describe its vision for working and playing in a virtual world.
Why the rebranding? The rebrand is part of the company's efforts to shift gears away from being known as just a social media company and focus on Zuckerberg's plans for building the metaverse.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook/Meta, has linked the new brand name to his strategic plan to create a metaverse — a virtual world in which consumers spend increasing parts of their lives, based on AI and virtual reality (VR) technology. This is an important new phase in the digital world.
But in the world of tech, one year's unicorn is the next year's failure. Which is why Zuckerberg and company have looked to the future, turned the page on a new chapter, and changed Facebook to Meta--an attempt to usher in the metaverse, a new world built in virtual reality.
Facebook (FB) changed its corporate name last fall to Meta, part of a strategic shift in focus from social media to a future, immersive — and so far largely theoretical — form of the internet powered by AR and VR technologies called the metaverse. Its stock started trading under the META ticker last month.
Meta Business Suite lets small businesses and creators manage all of their connected accounts across Facebook and Instagram in one place.
In the Greek, 'meta' meant 'after' or 'beyond'. Meta was also the name of a startup acquired by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative that used AI to aggregate scientific research - so Facebook already had the rights to the name.
The name change, first announced in October 2021, is effective today. This completes Meta's transformation to a holding company that owns a broad spectrum of technology applications from its old image as solely the owner of the Facebook social media platform.
Meta's mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.
Facebook parent Meta has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class action lawsuit that claimed the social media giant gave third parties access to user data without their consent.
The active user drop isn't as bad as it sounds.
At that rate of decline, it would take more than 900 years for Facebook to be used by no one.
Meta Platforms Inc, which used to be called Facebook Inc, is owned by Mark Zuckerberg, who acts as the company's chief executive officer and chairman. There are also other shareholders who make key decisions for Meta and the apps it owns.
The name was chosen to echo the key product that Zuckerberg hopes Facebook – now Meta – will be represented by: the metaverse, the name for a shared online 3D virtual space that a number of companies are interested in creating as a sort of future version of the internet.
Nobody is suggesting that Facebook is at risk of going out of business. The company still has a dominant position in mobile advertising and has one of the most profitable business models on the planet.
Meta comes from the Greek prefix and preposition meta, which means “after” or “beyond.” When combined with words in English, meta- often signifies “change” or “alteration” as in the words metamorphic or metabolic.
You don't have to link your Facebook and Meta accounts beyond transferring over your data if you don't want. Neither decision is permanent. If you set up your Meta account without Facebook, you can always link your accounts later, and you can unlink them if you do choose to set up with Facebook.
One of the key barriers to adopting Meta's excellent Quest 2 virtual reality headset has been the Facebook account requirement. That changes today. Meta is rolling out Meta accounts and Horizon profiles from today, meaning there's no longer a need to link a Facebook account in order to enjoy VR experiences.
A Meta account lets you log into your VR devices and view and manage your purchased content in one place. You can set up a Meta account with your email address or Facebook account. If this is your first time creating an account to use a Meta VR product, you can also set up a Meta account with your Instagram account.
Zuckerberg owns the Twitter handle @meta (whose tweets are protected as of this writing) and meta.com, which now redirects to a welcome page on Facebook outlining the changes. The site previously redirected to meta.org, a biomedical research discovery tool that was a project of the Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative.
Meta Platforms sells ads on social media websites and mobile applications and also sells augmented- and virtual-reality products and services. Advertising sales are the primary source of Meta's revenue.
Facebook (the parent company) has changed its name to Meta, in reference tothe metaverse, which combines social media with virtual and augmented reality — this will be the company's main focus moving forward. The social media platform will still be called Facebook and won't be affected by the rebranding.
Go to auth.meta.com/settings and log in using your Meta account information. Click DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT. Re-enter your password, then click DELETE YOUR DATA to confirm.