The Verge quoted people with “direct knowledge” of the matter, adding that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will make the announcement at the Connect conference on October 28. However, the rebranding could be revealed sooner. On a broader scale, the name change could help the company reposition itself as a conglomerate covering multiple services such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Oculus, and even the standard Facebook app, among others. This is similar to what Google did in 2015 by establishing Alphabet as a holding company for its services. It’s unclear what new name Facebook will go for, but we expect to get early pointers over the coming days.
Facebook recently hired 10,000+ employees in Europe for its metaverse team
As it stands, the name for this new conglomerate is reportedly secret, even internally. It is said that only a handful of company executives are in the know. While it’s likely that the future name could be related to Horizon, we cannot confirm this yet. There were indications of Facebook taking this step earlier this year. In an interview with The Verge in July, Zuckerberg said that the company will “transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company.” Such a move would also allow the CEO to stay separated from everything that’s going on with Facebook, especially the controversies. Recently, a former company employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen shared incriminating internal documents with the WSJ and later with Congress. Meanwhile, the SEC now appears to be closing in on an investigation of the company. Calls for breaking up the company are only growing louder in the midst of these controversies. The company established a dedicated metaverse team earlier this year, perhaps in anticipation of this upcoming change. Earlier this week, the company laid out plans to hire 10,000 employees in Europe to work on the metaverse. While Facebook has mentioned metaverse on a couple of occasions, it’s unclear what it’s referring to. The term metaverse refers to a virtual world that people embrace while leaving behind their real world. In this context, metaverse could refer to the company’s AR and VR products. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about these developments on or before October 28.
