Explosive revelations have recently hit Facebook badly. Now a new name is said to help realign Mark Zuckerberg’s tech giant.
Kassel / Palo Alto – Facebook is one of the best-known and most valuable brands in the world. According to the “Brandz” ranking by Kantar, the Internet company is in sixth place with a brand value of almost 227 billion dollars, and in tenth place among market observers from Interbrand.
However, Facebook has suffered a lot as a brand recently – so much that Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO, could take a radical step.
According to the report, Facebook wants to rename itself: “Metaverse” is coming into focus
As “The Verge” reported on Wednesday (October 20, 2021), Facebook wants to rename itself soon. Accordingly, Mark Zuckerberg wants to convey the far-reaching ambitions of the group more clearly to the outside world. In order to focus on the virtual world “Metaverse”, Mark Zuckerberg will announce the name change at the upcoming “Facebook Connect 2021” conference next week. With this change, the tech giant wants to signal its ambition to be known for more than just social media.
| Facebook Inc. | Technology company |
| founding | 2004 |
| Chair and CEO | Mark Zuckerberg |
| Seat | Silicon Valley, USA |
| Products | including Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram |
The “The Verge” portal, which is well networked in Silicon Valley, has not yet received confirmation from Facebook. “We do not comment,” said a spokesman for the German press agency. That doesn’t sound like a denial, however. Even within the leadership ranks of Facebook, only a few people have been inaugurated, the report says. It is all the more astonishing, however, that someone from this narrow circle could have spoiled the show for CEO Zuckerberg in the coming week.
Facebook: Whatsapp, Instagram and Oculus are also part of the group
The Facebook group not only owns the social network of the same name with the blue and white logo, but also the messenger Whatsapp * and the photo and video service Instagram. Oculus is also part of the Facebook empire. The division manufactures virtual reality headsets, including the Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest lines. These brands have so far been overshadowed by Facebook. Only Instagram appears independently in the “Brandz” list in 18th place. The market value is just under $ 83 billion.
According to the report by The Verge, renaming the group would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company that oversees Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus and other areas in addition to Facebook. Facebook wouldn’t be the first company in California’s Silicon Valley to change its name as the company’s direction expands. For example, after the launch of the first iPhone in 2007, Apple deleted the word “computer” from the company name. At the time, the iPod music player alone was making more sales than the Macintosh computers.
By changing the name of the group, the tech giant would underscore its ambitions that go beyond conventional social networks. Months ago Facebook announced the creation of a “Metaverse” that will create 10,000 jobs in the EU. This is a kind of virtual world, as it is described in numerous science fiction stories. The author Neal Stephenson once coined the term in the novel “Snow Crash” (1992). Mark Zuckerberg believes that such a virtual world is no longer just a dream due to the rapid development of hardware and glasses for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
Facebook: is a new name coming? The group’s image suffers from serious allegations
However, one motive for the renaming could also be the desire to improve the tarnished image of Facebook. Whistleblower Frances Haugen, for example, accuses the company of having brushed aside concerns raised internally, according to which Instagram worsens the problems of every third young girl with their own body image and even triggers suicidal thoughts in some young people. The allegations of the former Facebook manager Haugen reinforce Facebook critics in the US Congress, who are campaigning for the group to be broken up.
Meanwhile, Facebook is preparing for a second burst of publicity following the first wave of releases based on the internal papers owned by Haugen. In the past six weeks you have seen how documents can be incorrectly characterized, wrote the Facebook press office on Twitter. “Obviously, not every employee at Facebook is a manager; not every opinion is the company’s position. ”(lrg / dpa) * hna.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
