The billion-dollar company plans to change its name and rebrand in order to present a new identity – one that goes beyond social media. As announced by Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg: “we will effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company.” We are expected to know the new name and hear all about Facebook’s plans in the next few days, in its annual Connect conference.   

Now, what is a metaverse you ask? The term ‘metaverse’ started as a reference to virtual worlds in science fiction works. Although we don’t live in a science fiction movie, the term has been gaining more momentum recently in the online world. 

As previously described by Facebook itself: “The “metaverse” is a set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you. You’ll be able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create and more. It’s not necessarily about spending more time online — it’s about making the time you do spend online more meaningful.” 

The project is currently under construction, where a “metaverse team” was formed a few months ago. There are reportedly more than 10,000 employees working on hardware related to the new virtual world, and it was recently announced that Facebook plans to hire more than 10,000 employees in the EU over the next five years to work on the project.

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