But it is also likely an attempt to move on from the intense scrutiny and criticism it has faced in recent weeks and years, which has focused on everything from privacy to the damage it is doing to young people.
The blue app will continue to be known as Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg said. But the branding will be removed from everywhere else, such as the WhatsApp and Instagram.
“We’ve learned a lot from struggling with social issues and living under closed platforms, and now it is time to take everything that we’ve learned and help build the next chapter,” Zuckerberg said during an annual developers conference.
” I am proud to announce that starting today, our company is now Meta. Our mission remains the same, still about bringing people together, our apps and their brands, they’re not changing,” he added.
In a founder’s letter he wrote on Thursday, Zuckerberg explained that adopting a new brand identity was to conveniently accommodate the company’s other line of products as, “Right now our brand is so tightly linked to one product (Facebook.com) that it can’t possibly represent everything we’re doing today, let alone in the future.”
On how he came about the new name, Zuckerberg said, “I used to study Classics, and the word “meta” comes from the Greek word meaning “beyond”. For me, it symbolizes that there is always more to build, and there is always a next chapter to the story. Ours is a story that started in a dorm room and grew beyond anything we imagined; into a family of apps that people use to connect with one another, to find their voice, and to start businesses, communities, and movements that have changed the world.”
Pointblanknews.com recalls that the name change is Facebook’s second. In 2005, the company changed it’s name from the Facebook to just “Facebook.”