From FACEBOOK To META

By Epa Ogie Eboigbe

NEWSDAILYNIGERIA- Facebook announced the change of its corporate name to Meta .

It is a major rebranding exercise that is meant to help solve the company’s recent Public Relations and operational problems.

The change also comes as the social media company is battling criticisms from lawmakers and regulators in the US and Europe, over its market power, algorithmic decisions and the policing of abuses on its services.

Facebook C.EO. Mark Zuckerberg, who made the announcement, said the name, Meta would better “encompass” what the company does, as it broadens its reach beyond social media into areas like virtual reality.

The name change by the social networking giant, which also includes a new logo – a blue letter “M” – is seen as an unmistakable step toward an overhaul of the company, as it de-emphasizes the Facebook, although the Facebook, Instagram and other apps will remain, but under the Meta umbrella.

The name Meta, is derived from the word, Metaverse, which is an all-digital layer of reality that floats above, around, and throughout the features of the real world–or, in some definitions, is entirely separate for it.

Metaverse is a term coined in the three decades old dystopian novel, “Snow Crash” which has recently been attracting much buzz in Silicon Valley. It refers broadly to the idea of a shared virtual realm which can be accessed by people using different devices.

The company, which has invested heavily in augmented and virtual reality, said the change would bring together its different apps and technologies under one new brand. The change will however not affect the company’s corporate structure.

Facebook group says it currently has about three billion monthly users.

Zuckerberg, said during the company’s live-streamed virtual and augmented reality conference, that the new name reflected its ambitions to build the Metaverse, rather than its namesake social media service, which will continue to be called Facebook.

“We are a company that builds technology to connect. Together, we can finally put people at the center of our technology. And together, we can unlock a massively bigger creator economy”, Zuckerberg explained.

October 2021 has been a tough month for Zuckerberg and the Facebook group.

On October 4, social media users worldwide were shocked that for about 6 hours, they could not use the services of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram as they had gone down. The outage commenced from about 4.30pm Nigerian time but many users were not aware as they thought it was the internet services they were using that had problems.

WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, then under the Facebook Group were all inaccessible from desktops, tablets, phones and other devices since the afternoon crash.

Many social media users worldwide are on WhatsApp and the links with Facebook and Instagram provide a wide platform with acceptability cutting across ages, businesses and levels of education.

October 4 was the second time Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, will go down in 2021 this year, the first being in March. There was also an outage in July 2020. Of the about 33 million social media users in Nigeria, 86.2% are on Facebook, 81.6 per cent 73.1% on Instagram, while 67.2% Facebook.

The fact that governments, agencies, businesses and individuals all over the world felt the outage of the Facebook group further put more pressure on the group, with lawmakers and regulators suddenly realizing the powers the social media giant could wield with its platforms and apps. And the company already had major issues they were trying to sort out in the US Congress and the European Commission.

It is yet to be seen how this rebranding that has taken off with the name change to from Facebook to Meta will solve Mark Zuckerberg’s problems and reduce his blood pressure. But it is seen by Public Relations specialists as a positive step in the right direction which should provide a good lift off or soft pad, depending on how Metaverse works out.

Epa Ogie Eboigbe, veteran journalist, broadcaster and public affairs specialist, writes on, and analyses current and historical issues with a ‘wise pen’.