The recent rebranding of Facebook into Meta is not just a marketing gimmick. It hits at much deeper issues, and those issues will dominate the tech world over the next few years. Facebook (now Meta) is not the only company to do so, nor is it the last. Rebranding as a marketing strategy has existed for a long time. However, in the case of Facebook, the rebranding efforts go much beyond marketing and promotion. By renaming itself to Meta, Facebook is trying to separate its area of operations. The company did the same thing with Libra/Diem – their cryptocurrency initiative. A different name (and ownership under that name) makes a company seem independent and unassociated with its predecessors. Facebook is trying to move past its past image of controversy and launching into the metaverse with Meta.
Google and Snapchat have already done similar things in the past. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, does not associate itself with the search engine and workspace provider. Similarly, Snap Inc does not associate itself with the social media platform. These are all efforts to distance the subsidiary from the parent so that the parent’s controversies do not affect the subsidiary.
How Facebook realizes its metaverse ambitions is still up for debate. Many feel that it won’t be much more than an AR-VR-based social media platform. Others think that the potential of the metaverse to create a micro-society should not be undermined. Whether the rebranding efforts become successful is subject to time and competition.
