We have some news — Facebook has changed its name. No, not the app; we’re talking about ”Facebook” the parent company that also owns Instagram and WhatsApp.
Facebook has shocked the whole world by announcing ‘metaverse’ — a never-seen-before VR universe that we’ve probably seen in Star Trek and Ready Player One. Mark Zuckerberg has finally rebranded his company as ‘Meta’ via a mind-boggling 90-minute presentation about “interacting over different layers of reality”.
However, here’s a plot twice: it all happened amidst the infamous whistle-blower fiasco.
We admit it — the metaverse sounds very confusing. What does this shift hold for the future? Most importantly, is rebranding a mere distraction? We’ll discuss all the details about this bold move by Zuckerberg; continue reading to find out.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Vision Deconstructed
After seven long months of scrutiny, Facebook has finally transitioned into Meta, the Greek term for ‘beyond’ — so does it promise to deliver, experience-wise. As per Mark Zuckerberg, the metaverse will become “the successor to mobile internet”.
How so? By creating a futuristic virtual world for people to interact and collaborate through AR/VR, as well as smartphones, laptops, and PCs. Zuckerberg also claims that this 5-year long project will allow people to create virtual workrooms and home spaces and interact in the form of digital avatars. Besides, this platform also promises newer and more streamlined ways to create art and content.
Is The Metaverse A Reputation Management Strategy?
Facebook is not a stranger to controversies — be it as crucial as the data breach fiasco or the minor 6‑hour global outage due to internal technical faults. However, the recent whistle-blower scandal published by The Wall Street Journal has surely placed the company’s reputation in dire straits.
Apparently, a whistle-blower named Frances Haugen (ex-employee, Facebook) had spilled the beans about the company being aware that its main and sister platforms are used as vehicles to spread hateful, violent, and misinformation-related content worldwide. Haugen has also added that “the company has continually chosen its gains over what is good for the public to be exposed to”, leading to numerous internal conflicts of interest.
But why did Zuckerberg drop the bomb out of nowhere? Critics are deducing the sudden Meta narrative may hint towards stirring a tumult to distract the world from these scandals.
Facebook, on the other hand, claims to have confidentially initiated the renaming process earlier this March, later finalized around July as Meta. Alex Schultz (Chief Marketing Officer/VP of Analytics, Facebook) has said, “We couldn’t be any prouder of our milestones in social, and we’re very hopeful about the Metaverse. So, we do not want to run away from anything.”
Conclusion
Distraction or no distraction — Facebook..err, Meta still sounds like a flawed concept, and even Zuckerberg agrees. The Odin of social media prepares to disrupt the global industry yet once again, and similarly, whether the company repeats its same, old errors once again would speak a lot about the future reputation of Metaverse.
Subscribe and stay tuned for more articles on new developments in the technology and social media space.