Facelift for Facebook; likely to get a new name next week: reports

Facebook may get a new name, and the announcement may come as early as next week as per reports. Citing “a source with direct knowledge of the matter,” The Verge reported that the Silicon Valley corporation wants to be known less for social media than for what the tech publication called “its focus on building the metaverse.” Here is the buzz so far -:

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• CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about the rebranding at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th
• Zuckerberg is keen for Facebook to move away from it's classification as only a social media company
• The rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus
• Facebook wants to be identified as a metaverse company
• Facebook announced plans to hire 10,000 more employees to work on the metaverse in Europe a few days ago

Facebook would not be the first tech giant to undergo a name and image change. Google did the same in 2015 as it reorganised itself under the parent holding company Alphabet to send a signal that it is not merely a search engine company.