It’s all change over at Facebook HQ. The tech giant officially renamed itself to Meta in a lengthy presentation last night that outlined its ambitions to move away from social media and spawn a virtual reality “metaverse”.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that the company’s former name could not "possibly represent everything that we're doing today, let alone in the future". Meta, he reasons, does a better job of representing the company’s new goals.
"Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we're building towards," the smoker of meats said during an incredibly strange virtual conference.
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"We're now looking at and reporting on our business as two different segments, one for our family of apps, and one for our work on future platforms.
"And as part of this, it is time for us to adopt a new company brand to encompass everything that we do, to reflect who we are and what we hope to build."
Surprisingly, this name change extends to the device that kicked off Facebook’s relationship with VR. The Oculus brand, which includes the VR headsets and Oculus app, will now be rebranded to become the Meta Quest and Meta Quest app in early 2022. Facebook’s incoming CTO Andew Bosworth confirmed the change will extend to all Oculus names. Oculus Home and Oculus Venues, for instance, will become Horizon Home and Horizon Venues. Why? Because that’s what Meta wants.
"We all have a strong attachment to the Oculus brand, and this was a very difficult decision to make," Bosworth said in a post on Facebook. "While we're retiring the name, I can assure you that the original Oculus vision remains deeply embedded in how Meta will continue to drive mass adoption for VR today."
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