As part of a strategic shift to focus on its virtual world, as its main social network business is in crisis, Facebook announced Thursday the name change to Meta.

Facebook has changed its name as lawmakers and regulators have criticized the world's largest social media company over its market power, algorithmic decisions and policing of abuses on its platform.

After acquiring Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, Zuckerberg has been considering changing the name of his company, but he decided to do it early in 2021. 

In a phone conversation days before the news, Zuckerberg told The Verge, "I think we're basically moving from being Facebook first as a company to being metaverse first."

He adds, "I think that there was just a lot of confusion and awkwardness about having the company brand be also the brand of one of the social media apps."

Facebook sees the metaverse as the future of its business, although the overall firm will be known as Meta, it appears that several of its apps and services, such as Facebook and WhatsApp, will retain their present branding under the Meta umbrella.

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According to reports, Facebook has been heavily investing in the development of a metaverse, which may be described as an expansive, immersive vision of the internet. It is expected to invest at least $10 billion on such development activities in 2021 alone.

Tens of thousands of documents allegedly reveal the company knew it was fueling polarization in many countries, misleading people by providing false information, and failing to stop a violent network that triggered the Washington insurgency in January 2016. As a result, governments around the world have threatened new regulations for the tech industry.

Pavan A

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA