Yesterday, The Verge reported that Facebook might be changing its name to better reflect its "metaverse" ambitions. Now another report claims that the name hasn't been decided upon yet, even though the company plans to unveil it soon.
Journalist Casey Newton says he's confirmed with his sources that the name change is either coming next Monday, during Facebook's earnings call, or at the Oculus Connect conference, scheduled for next Thursday.
Despite the urgent timeline (a week at most!), Newton's sources say that CEO Mark Zuckerberg hasn't settled on a final name, meaning that all those crazy suggestions we've seen online might still have a chance. Mark, if you're reading this, my suggestion is"🤟🏻METALVERSE🤟🏻". Just think about it.
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The report also sheds some light on the genesis of this possible name change. The company has reportedly been discussing the move for at least two months. And former Facebook CMO Antonio Lucio pushed for a company name change three years ago, in order to separate the products from the company, but the decision was overruled.
In the meantime, a ton of things happened. While Facebook continued to make tons of money, numerous concerns about Facebook's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, its privacy and security practices, and its general effect on our well-being prompted regulators to impose fines, and even propose breaking it up into several smaller companies. It may be time to turn over a new leaf, and a new name would be a start.
According to Newton, another reason for the name change is that Facebook is thinking far broader than social media these days. Zuckerberg has openly been talking about the metaverse — a somewhat ill-defined term that Facebook ties to virtual and augmented reality — being the future of the company.
As for the name itself, our best (serious) bet right now is "Meta." It sounds good, ties well into the metaverse story, and it looks like Facebook owns the web domain "meta.com." We should find out what it is soon enough, though.
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