Goodbye, Facebook; Hello, Meta
Mark Zuckerberg says the company he founded will get a new name. Whether it helps solve the social media giant’s bigger problems isn’t at all certain, Bloomberg Opinion columnists say.
Split reality.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
As expected, Mark Zuckerberg announced today that Facebook Inc. — the company, not the under-fire social network — is changing its name to Meta, a move he said reflects an emphasis on a new computing platform called themetaverse. Critics say it’s meant to deflect attention away from the Facebook’s increasingly toxic reputation. And while Zuckerberg, who founded the company, is betting that turning the focus to virtual reality will ensure its future, such technologies are far from widely used.
But what, exactly, is the metaverse? Tae Kim has a helpful explanation: “Think of it as a futuristic version of an always-on multiplayer video game where you can play, socialize or even run a moneymaking business in a realistic computer-generated environment.”