The corporate entity of Facebook is set to be no more.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a virtual keynote on Thursday that the corporate entity of Facebook will now be known as Meta.
The website and app we know as Facebook will retain that name, as will other subsidiaries of Facebook like Instagram and WhatsApp.
The new name will be used as the new corporate umbrella that encompasses all of what was formerly known as Facebook’s holdings. That means it’s publicly traded stock which is currently listed on tickers as FB (Facebook) will be changed to something new that reflects that new Meta title.
The move comes as Facebook has been battling a wave of negative press stemming from reports released by a former Facebook employee, who claims the company was very aware of the negative impact their social media platforms have on youth and failed to take any action.
Whether the new name will change people’s outlook on the company remains to be seen. Google attempted something similar in 2015 when they changed the name of their parent company to Alphabet but that term has failed to catch on and the company it still primarily referred to as Google.