“One more thing. “ While stretched, Thursday, October 28, for more than an hour, his virtual conference, Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook, took over the recipes of Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, who liked to deliver his announcements. more important at the end of his speeches. Forget Facebook, welcome to Meta: a new name for a new purpose.
The new name does not relate to the popular social network (around 3 billion users), but to the structure that also covers applications such as Instagram, WhatsApp or other lesser-known activities, such as those relating to reality virtual (Facebook Reality Labs). “Today our brand is so tied to a single product that it is impossible for it to represent everything we do today, let alone what we will do in the future”, Zuckerberg explained.
Meta refers to the concept of metaverse, very fashionable, currently carried by companies such as Epic Games, Roblox or Facebook, which would allow each user to have a total digital life experience in the form of an avatar. Here to participate virtually in a work meeting and share documents, there to join friends and watch a movie, without any friction between services. “This is what will happen after the Internet: instead of looking at a screen, you will be immersed in the experience itself”, explains Andrew Bosworth, head of Facebook Reality Labs.
A certain consistency
The announcement made by Facebook may seem perfectly opportunistic at a time when the world’s leading social network is the object of the most severe criticism following a series of articles in the American press, then in Europe, including The world, made thanks to the revelations of a whistleblower, Frances Haugen, which show that the group has chosen to ignore some of the dangers linked to its activity – toxic content on Instagram for adolescents, disinformation that harms democracy … – for the sake of preserving its profits.
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These revelations have rekindled hostilities against the company, in particular among the American political class, and weighed on its stock market price (- 17% since the end of August). The creator of Facebook also wanted to defend himself during the conference: “I am proud of what we have built”, he said. Even if, with Meta, Mr. Zukerberg clearly wants to turn a page marked by inglorious episodes for Facebook, he must be recognized for a certain consistency. He was among the first major promoters of the metaverse, convinced that virtual reality would bring social networks to a new dimension.
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