Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name to reflect its next venture, the metaverse, it has been reported.
Earlier this year, the social network's founder Mark Zuckerberg said it would transition from a social media company to “being a metaverse company” over the next several years.
But what is the metaverse?
READ MORE:
In essence, the metaverse is the internet in 3D - an online world where people can meet, play and work virtually, often using virtual reality headsets.
Speaking in July, Zuckerberg described it as a place where rather than just viewing content “you are in it”, and as an early example has used the idea of people watching a concert video on their smartphone but then jumping in it using the metaverse to create the sense they are really there.
Facebook has already announced plans to hire 10,000 new staff in Europe to help it build the metaverse.
Zuckerberg is said to be keen to signal the company’s intent to move beyond just social media and the controversies that have faced the platform in that area.
According to The Verge, the rebrand could be announced during Facebook’s Connect conference on October 28.
It could see a new parent company created, with Facebook and other services like WhatsApp, Instagram and virtual reality firm Oculus sitting underneath it.
It has been suggested the move could help separate work on the metaverse from the scrutiny Facebook continues to face over how its social media platforms currently operate.
The change would not be the first time a big-name technology brand has pivoted as its work evolved.
In 2015 Google created a new parent company called Alphabet as a way of highlighting it was no longer just a search engine but a broad range of different companies working on smartphones, driverless cars and other technology.
In 2016, Snapchat also renamed itself Snap Inc and expanded from being a photo-sharing app to calling itself a “camera company”, then unveiled its first hardware product – the camera-housing Spectacles glasses.
