Mark Zuckerberg is saying goodbye to Facebook for good. On Thursday, he announced Facebook has been rebranded to “Meta” to focus on his “metaverse” of social networking apps and AR/VR hardware.
According to Variety.com, Zuckerberg hopes Meta will reach 1 billion people in the next decade.
Last week, The Verge first reported that Zuckerberg was changing the name of Facebook’s parent company to reflect his changing vision for his metaverse.
“Our mission remains the same — it’s still about bringing people together,” Zuckerberg said Thursday.
“But now we have a new North Star, to help bring the metaverse to life, and we have a new name that reflects the full breadth of what we do and the future that we want to help build.”
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Zuckerberg said the company will shift its focus from social networking on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, to building the company’s AR and VR products.
“From now on, we’re going to be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first,” he said.
Zuckerberg has come under fire for failing to act on warnings from whistleblowers about misinformation and exposing children to harmful content.
He hopes to shift the focus away from Facebook, which over time will not be needed to access the company’s hardware products.
“Today we’re seen as a social-media company, but the metaverse is the next frontier,” he said.
