Facebook, under fire from regulators and lawmakers over its business practices, is planning to rebrand itself with a new group name that focuses on the metaverse, the Verge reported.
The name change will be announced next week, the website said, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been talking up the metaverse, a digital world where people can move between different devices and communicate in a virtual environment, since July, and the group has invested heavily in virtual reality and augmented reality, developing hardware such as its Oculus VR headsets and working on AR glasses and wristband technologies.
The move would likely position the flagship app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing brands such as Instagram and WhatsApp, according to the report.
Google adopted such a structure when it reorganized into a holding company called Alphabet in 2015.
The news comes just days after the company announced plans to create 10000 jobs in the European Union over the next five years to build the metaverse.
It has already committed US$50 million for building the metaverse, and testing a new remote work app where users of Oculus Quest 2 headsets could hold meetings as avatar versions of themselves.
Facebook said it does not comment on "rumour or speculation."
If true, the rebranding would make sense as the core Facebook business becomes less important to the group and it seeks to revamp an image tarnished by regulatory and legal scrutiny of how it handles user safety and hate speech, analysts said.
Facebook is under wide-ranging scrutiny from global lawmakers and regulators over its content moderation practices and harms linked to its platforms, with internal documents leaked by a whistleblower forming the basis for a US Senate hearing last week.
"Having a different parent brand will guard against having this negative association transferred into a new brand, or other brands that are in the portfolio," said Shankha Basu, associate professor of marketing at University of Leeds.
Last month, Facebook appointed Andrew Bosworth, who heads up the social media company's augmented reality and virtual reality efforts, including products like its Oculus Quest VR headset, as chief technology officer.
Metaverse, first coined in a dystopian novel three decades earlier, is popular in Silicon Valley and has been referenced by other tech firms such as Microsoft.
Zuckerberg plans to talk about the name change at the company's annual Connect conference on Oct. 28, but it could be unveiled sooner, the Verge said.
WHAT IS THE METAVERSE?
Metaverse is a broad term. It generally refers to shared virtual world environments which people can access via the internet.
The term can refer to digital spaces which are made more lifelike by the use of virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR).
Some people also use the word metaverse to describe gaming worlds, in which users have a character that can walk around and interact with other players.
There is also a specific type of metaverse which uses blockchain technology. In these, users can buy virtual land and other digital assets using cryptocurrencies.
Many science fiction books and films are set in fully-fledged metaverses - alternative digital worlds which are indistinguishable from the real physical world. But this is still the stuff of fiction. Currently, most virtual spaces look more like the inside of a video game than real life.
WHY IS IT TAKING OFF?
Fans of the metaverse see it as the next stage in the development of the internet.
At the moment, people interact with each other online by going to websites such as social media platforms or using messaging applications.
The idea of the metaverse is that it will create new online spaces in which people's interactions can be more multi-dimensional, where users are able to immerse themselves in digital content rather than simply viewing it.
The accelerated interest in the metaverse can be seen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As more people have started working and going to school remotely, there has been increased demand for ways to make online interaction more lifelike.
WHO IS GETTING INVOLVED?
The idea of the metaverse is attracting a lot of interest from investors and companies who are keen to be part of the next big thing.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in July that the company will try to transition from being a social media company to a metaverse company in the next five years or so.
The term is popular in Silicon Valley, with Microsoft also having mentioned converging the digital and physical worlds.
The popular children's game Roblox, which had its New York Stock Exchange debut in March, describes itself as a metaverse company. Epic Games' Fortnite is also considered to be part of the metaverse.
Musicians can do virtual concerts within these platforms. For example, in September millions of people watched the singer Ariana Grande virtually perform in Fortnite, Epic Games said.
The world's biggest fashion companies have also experimented with making virtual clothing, which people's avatars can wear in metaverse environments.
REUTERS
