Facebook renamed Meta: how exactly is the company going to build its own metaverse

Yesterday, Facebook Corporation officially changed its name to Meta. The company has announced a number of new products and technologies that will help it on its way to creating its own metaverse. We tell you in detail about Meta’s ambitions, its concept, main functions and the reaction of market experts to the rebranding.

Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook Connect 2021

Briefly about the changes

Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding on October 28 at the Facebook Connect 2021 conference. At the same time, the new company name officially entered into legal force.
Facebook Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus and other services of the company will be combined by Meta. It will continue to develop existing products and create new technologies. All of them will become part of the metaverse in the future.
The main goal of the metaverse is to unite people around the world within a single space and allow them to do things that are impossible in the real world. Meta intends to give users a completely new experience of interaction in the virtual space. The metaverse can be used for entertainment purposes, as well as for education and sports.
Zuckerberg noted that the metaverse will be created and developed by users who will become its authors and developers. Meta will give them a platform that will open access to a wide range of opportunities.
The company structure will remain the same. However, financial reports will now be divided into two segments — Family of Apps (all social services and applications) and Reality Labs (metaverse and AR/VR initiatives).
This year, the company’s investments in augmented and virtual reality will reach $10 billion, which will negatively affect its profits. Meta also announced the creation of a $150 million fund to support and develop new technologies.
As part of the presentation, Meta presented a new logo in the form of a blue Mobius ribbon.

What does Zuckerberg say about rebranding?

In an interview with The Verge, Mark Zuckerberg noted that with the help of rebranding, the company plans to find a new identity. Now people associate Facebook with a social network. However, the company wants to think more globally and create technologies that unite users.
Now Meta divides its business into two segments. One is for social networks and existing apps, and the second is for all future brands. And the metaverse should unite these directions.
According to Zuckerberg, the name change has nothing to do with negative news and the latest scandals around Facebook. He stressed that the presentation of a new brand is only a logical step towards the development of the company.
Zuckerberg is confident that a new, more immersive and three-dimensional Internet will appear over the next 10 years. He wants to create a technology that will allow people to upload their full-fledged avatars into the virtual space and come to visit each other in the form of holograms.
Meta will create a new account system. People will be able to use a single account to log in to all the company’s services. Facebook Instagram can be used without being linked to Facebook, if a person does not want to use the social network and provide her with their data.
Speaking about the competition with Roblox and Fortnite, Zuckerberg stressed that Meta is aimed at a more adult audience. The main target audience is people aged 18-29 years. It is on them that the company will focus when developing new products and creating a metaverse.
According to Zuckerberg, blockchain technologies will play an important role in the formation of a new reality. People do not yet understand whether they will be able to fully own digital items in the metaverse, or whether they will be able to take this content away from them. The company is working in this direction, but is not ready to share details yet.
At the end of the interview, Zuckerberg stressed that the main task is to make sure that each individual application is focused on people and solves their specific needs. At the same time, they should become separate zones to which you can “teleport” at any time within a single metaverse.

Technologies, services and products

A number of technologies in virtual and augmented reality are needed for the full functioning of the metaverse company. Meta also plans to develop new devices that meet these goals.
Horizon Home is a virtual social space where users will interact with each other using the Oculus Quest 2 VR helmet. People will be able to make video calls, gather in virtual rooms, watch videos and play together.
Over 20 applications will be added to Horizon Home, which can be placed on a virtual screen. Among them are Slack, Dropbox, as well as various Facebook services.
Horizon Marketplace is a virtual marketplace where users can sell and buy virtual goods (including those created by them).
Project Cambria is a new high-end VR headset. It will not replace Quest, as it will cost significantly more and will provide users with more compact lenses, face tracking technology and advanced AR capabilities.
Project Azeray — augmented reality glasses. They will expand the capabilities of the metaverse: users will be able to communicate with each other and interact with objects using various AR elements.
Meta will add new features to its Spark AR tool. Among them — tracking the position of the hands and body. With the new features, users will be able to create various elements in augmented reality through the Polar app.
The company will abandon the Oculus brand. VR headsets will be renamed Meta Quest, and Oculus App will be renamed Meta Quest App.

Project Cambria

Gaming News

In addition to the already existing VR titles, many other games will be released for Quest 2.
A VR version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is in development, which Rockstar Games is working on. There are no details about the project yet.
Meta has announced the continuation of cooperation with Vertigo Games. The studio will make five games for Quest 2 at once, including a number of titles from Deep Silver.
The company will continue to support Beat Saber. In 2022, new performers and a number of other updates will appear in the game.
For Population: One will continue to release content updates. The company announced that this battle royale has become the most popular multiplayer shooter on the Quest platform.
At the end of 2021, the VR version of the fantasy action Blade & Sorcery: Nomad will be released.

What are experts afraid of?

Contrary to Zuckerberg’s words, some analysts are convinced that the company’s name change is somehow connected with the negative background around Facebook and its founder.
Mario Natarelli, managing partner of the MBLM agency, noted that the company should have postponed the rebranding for a year. He believes that due to scandals and leaks, changing the name will most likely not raise the level of trust in Facebook, but only increase the negative.
Lindsay Broadhead from the Toronto Chamber of Commerce is also confident that rebranding will not help the company to distance itself from negative news. For real changes, Facebook needs to start taking active actions to solve the existing problems.
According to Professor Justin Angle, Facebook’s main strength lies in its monopoly. If the company starts to spread out to create new technologies and devices in the field of AR and VR, it may lose its advantage over competitors.
Changing the name can also create confusion. As an example, Engle cited the rebranding of Philip Morris. Until now, when Altria (the new name of the company) performs some action on the market, no one associates it with the old well-known brand.
John Weiss, co-founder of the Human agency, stressed that first of all the company needed to solve the problem with user trust: “Introducing a new brand will only increase consumer fears that Facebook only cares about itself.”