Facebook announced its company will be called “Meta” to reflect a larger virtual world beyond just the social media platform.
At Facebook’s Connect 2021 conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Meta, which brings together apps and technologies under one new company brand. Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.
The metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together — and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world. It’s the next evolution in a long line of social technologies, and it’s ushering in a new chapter for our company. Mark shared more about this vision in a founder’s letter.
“I’m proud of what we’ve built so far, and I’m excited about what comes next — as we move beyond what’s possible today, beyond the constraints of screens, beyond the limits of distance and physics, and towards a future where everyone can be present with each other, create new opportunities and experience new things. It is a future that is beyond anyone company and that will be made by all of us,” said Mark Zuckerberg.
“Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future. Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and identity on what we’re building toward” Zuckerberg added.
The Rebranding & Name Change
The new company brand captures where the company is going and the future they want to help build. “Meta” was chosen because it can mean “beyond,” and captures the company’s commitment to building social technologies that take us beyond what digital connection makes possible today.
A new logo and colour will also be introduced to accompany the new company brand. The logo is treated in a blue gradient — as a nod to the company’s heritage. It’s designed to be experienced in 3D so that it truly comes to life in the metaverse — where you can move through it and around it.
The Metaverse, AR & VR Technologies
Alongside its vision for the metaverse, Zuckerberg also shared more about the progress the company is making today with some foundational elements across its AR & VR technologies.
- VR News: VR is at an inflection point, led by the release of Quest 2. Games are booming, VR is getting more social, fitness is becoming a hot vertical, and we’re building out more ways VR can be used as a work device. And, we continue to invest in the developer community to help them build and monetize their applications through new tools and features.
- Augmented Reality news: As VR hits an inflection point, we’re investing in the core technology and work needed to bring fully-featured AR glasses to market. While we work on the hardware to make AR glasses, we’re cultivating the content, capabilities, and communities that can enrich Facebook experiences today and illuminate the path to AR glasses ahead.
Facebook’s annual Connect conference brought together augmented and virtual reality developers, content creators, marketers, and others to celebrate the industry’s momentum and growth. This year’s virtual event explored what experiences in the metaverse could feel like over the next decade — from social connection to entertainment, gaming, fitness, work, education, and commerce.
New tools to help people build for the metaverse, including Presence Platform, which will enable new mixed reality experiences on Quest 2, and a $150-million investment in immersive learning to train the next generation of creators were also announced.
Source: Facebook / Meta