In an effort to disassociate itself from recent scandals and connect itself more closely with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent fascination with the “metaverse,” Facebook is apparently intending to change its company name as soon as next week.
According to The Verge, Facebook’s app and website will remain untouched, but the parent company will rebrand in the same way as Alphabet, the holding company behind Google.
Sources with direct knowledge of the situation say that Zuckerberg plans to discuss the name change during the company’s annual Connect conference on Oct. 28, but it could be unveiled sooner.
The new name change will reportedly represent the company’s aspirations to grow outside social media, which has been plagued by critics and scandals in recent years.
Just last month, Facebook launched its newest product: Ray-Ban “smart glasses” — a product that Zuckerberg has stated is part of the companies quest to become a “metaverse corporation.”
“We don’t comment on rumor or speculation,” said Joe Osborne, a Facebook representative, when questioned about the supposed name change.
After the announcement, Facebook’s stock rose by less than 1% in premarket trade.
Zuckerberg has previously discussed his recent fascination with the so-called metaverse, which he believes will become even more pervasive than cellphones and the internet. The concept of the metaverse reflects the progress of the internet and the technology that allows people to access it, resulting in a closer integration of the virtual and physical worlds.
As augmented reality glasses like the ones his firm debuted last month grow more common, Zuckerberg has already spoken about things like art, apparel, and culture becoming increasingly essential in the metaverse.
In July, Zuckerberg told the Verge that “we will effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company.”
The anticipated rebrand could also help Facebook separate its metaverse research from its more contentious social media cash cows.
Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee turned whistleblower, disclosed a pile of damning internal information to the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.
The documents revealed that Facebook targeted younger users for recruitment, despite its researchers’ findings that Instagram was particularly detrimental to young girls.
She was asked to appear before Congress, where she blasted Facebook, claiming that the company prioritizes profits over the health and safety of its users.
Facebook has attempted to portray Haugen as a dissatisfied employee, and the corporation has chastised the media for allegedly mischaracterizing the leaked internal documents, claiming that the research’s findings were inconclusive.
