Facebook changes its name to Meta. Presents “metaversum” – EURACTIV.pl

The CEO and founder of Facebook has announced that his company’s name has been changed to Meta. It is responsible for websites and applications such as Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp. The rebranding was accompanied by the announcement of the Metaversum vision that the company would build. It is a mixture of the internet and virtual reality.

The main Facebook company name change was announced several weeks ago. It was presented yesterday (October 28) at Facebook Connect’s annual conference.

Meta replaces Facebook

When rebranding its main company, Facebook behaved a little differently from 2015. Google, which created a parent company called Alphabet, which controls small individual companies, for example through Google X, owns the Google search engine, the Google Play app store or A company that supports the Android mobile operating system, and through other companies it controls other Google projects.

On the other hand, Facebook is simply rebranding its current company with Facebook Inc. on Meta Platforma Inc. , but it does not change its structure significantly. All existing products – Facebook, Instagram, Mapillary, WhatsApp messenger or the GIPHY search engine – remain with their current names.

This year’s Facebook Connect conference is devoted primarily to issues related to virtual reality, as well as to the so-called augmented reality. In these trends Facebook’s latest project, the so-called metaverse.

This is why Facebook is changing the name of its main company. “The current brand is closely associated with Facebook to appropriately reflect what the company is doing now” – explained the president and founder of the website Mark Zuckerberg He added that he wanted to see his company over time in terms of “metaversum”.

How is “metaversum” supposed to work?

During Facebook Connect, assembled journalists and bloggers were shown a sample of how the Internet works in a virtual and augmented reality version. For this purpose, Zuckerberg held a demonstration meeting with his friends represented by a 3D avatar in a virtual common room resembling a spaceship.

“In the metaverse you will be able to do everything you can imagine: work, shop and play instead of looking at the screen, you will feel as if you are there” – announced Zuckerberg, who unexpectedly appeared in the room when the conference participants were wearing virtual reality glasses created by the proprietary Oculus For Facebook (and from now on to Meta).

But access to the “metaversum” will be possible not only with special goggles, but also with augmented reality glasses, as well as mobile devices and desktop computers.

At the same time, as announced by Zuckerberg, electronic devices are no longer the main focus of users. “Internet users in the metaverse will be avatars, but they will also be able to move pictures, movies, music and books there. Many physical things today, such as screens, will be holograms in the future. We will not need a physical TV, we will buy a hologram for a dollar from High school kid “- said the head of Facebook his vision.

Zuckerberg responds to whistleblower allegations

For now, the “metaverse”, although some of its elements already exist, is still a song from the future, despite Zuckerberg’s announcement not far off. “It will take at least 5-10 years to fully implement this vision and will require at least a dozen major technological breakthroughs,” he admitted during the presentation.

However, Meta will invest billions of dollars in this project and the company has already made building “metaversum” its top priority. “It might sound like science fiction these days, but I think it will be our reality in a decade,” Zuckerberg emphasized.

The Facebook chief also referred to the recent accusations against the company under his management. Internal company documents were revealed to the media by a group of former employees, which shows that management has long been aware of the negative effects of using the site on users (mass dissemination of disinformation, polarization, radicalization of opinions, and ultimately causing depression or alienation from one’s own body). ).), but it either does little or nothing about it.

With all the interest and public debate being stirred up now, some of you may be wondering: Why are you doing this now? Answer: I think we were created to be created. I believe that technology can make our lives better and that the future will not build itself,” Zuckerberg emphasized.

But he promised that “the company will fix any errors that appear in the daily operations of any large company.”