Netizens ‘excited’ to guess Facebook’s new name

The Verge quoted sources close to Facebook as saying that Facebook plans to change its name and will announce a new name next week. This led to many speculations of the online community.

Samidh Chakrabarti, the former head of Facebook, also has his own speculation. He guessed the old company would change its name to “Meta”. The web address meta.com now leads to meta.org, the website of a biomedical research tool funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation.On Twitter, some suggestions include simple names like “FB,” or a return to “The Facebook.” According to The Verge, the new name could be a reference to “Horizon,” a virtual reality platform the company is developing. It represents CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ambition to create a digital universe (metaverse). Mr. Zuckerberg believes that the digital universe is the next leap of technology, following the mobile Internet. The digital universe will be a place where people immerse themselves in the virtual world to live, work and interact with each other.

Still according to The Verge, the rebranding aims to position Facebook as a digital space company, instead of a social networking company as it is today. Apps and services like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp still maintain their old names, standing under a new roof. It is similar to the restructuring of Google into Alphabet a few years ago.

Facebook plans to introduce the new name on October 28 at the Connect event.