Facebook officially changed its name to Meta. This change was announced directly by Mark Zuckerberg at the Connect 2021 event.
"It's time we adopted a new corporate brand to cover everything we do. From now on, we will make the first metaverse, not Facebook anymore," Zuckerberg said.
"I am proud to announce that as of today, our company is now Meta," he continued.
Zuckerberg ensured this name change will not change the name of the application. Meta will be the parent that houses Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and others.
"Currently, our brand is closely related to one product, so it is impossible to represent everything we do today, let alone in the future," said the father of two.
Through Meta, Zuckerberg said, the company is committed to building a composite universe that blends online, virtual, and augmented worlds that people can seamlessly traverse through. This concept, known as the metaverse, could become the next big social platform and it is believed several tech companies will build on it over the next 10 years.
"Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens to immersive experiences like augmented reality and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology."
To note, Facebook is not the first technology company to change its company name as the company's ambitions grow.
Previously a similar move was taken by Google in 2015, the internet search giant reorganized completely under a parent company called Alphabet Inc. Then Snapchat changed its name to Snap Inc in 2016.
But the change in Facebook's name comes amid a series of reports from The Washington Post that accuse Facebook of allowing misinformation and malicious content to spread to promote profit.