In a long-rumoured move. Mark Zuckerberg officially announced on Thursday that he is rebranding his company from Facebook to “Meta”.
The CEO and founder of Facebook announced the name change during a Facebook Connect augmented and virtual reality conference on Thursday and how he now wants to bring people together in a “metaverse.”
“Facebook is one of the most-used products in the history of the world. It is an iconic social media brand, but increasingly, it just doesn’t encompass everything we do,” said the 37-year-old tech entrepreneur adding, “I want to anchor our work and our identity in what we are building toward.”
Basically, from the looks of things, Facebook as a brand will still exist and the website itself won’t be affected – neither should its connected apps Instagram and WhatsApp. Instead, he wants to create a virtual reality world like something from a sci-fi movie or a throwback to the mid-2000s when everyone spent all their time on Second Life and World of Warcraft.
WATCH: Sneak Peek at Facebook metaverse pic.twitter.com/rUGGiJeMLr
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) October 28, 2021
As you can imagine, the string of controversies linked to Facebook over the past few years have not made Zuckerberg the most popular person and any attempt to rebrand his global company was always going to be met with criticism and the inevitable mockery.
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Sure enough, it didn’t take the fine folks of the internet to start makings memes about Meta because what else did Zuckerberg think was going to happen?
Facebook renaming to Meta like pic.twitter.com/PjfhEaxLhV
— Dr. Parik Patel, BA, CFA, ACCA Esq. 💸 (@ParikPatelCFA) October 28, 2021
Can't have problems with Facebook if the company isn't called Facebook #Meta pic.twitter.com/AdZvrD1bWi
— Luke Smith (@LukeSmithF1) October 28, 2021
Remember Facebook?! pic.twitter.com/trw4w9wi6X
— Shutts (@Shuttsapalooza) October 28, 2021
— The Empty Mank (@brofromanother) October 28, 2021
One might say they are getting the F out. 🤷♂️ https://t.co/pQhalZLvR2 pic.twitter.com/s3rWZeSNaO
— Lance Storm (@LanceStorm) October 28, 2021
Same vibe, similar logo pic.twitter.com/odpsHfWN7W
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) October 28, 2021
This would have been way more meta pic.twitter.com/qeNg8YZhvm
— Morning Brew ☕️ (@MorningBrew) October 28, 2021
— Phil™ (@Henkepotamus) October 28, 2021
Changing name to Meat
— Meat (@Wendys) October 28, 2021
There was a lot of wordplay on the word “Meta”.
Gonna take awhile to get used to saying “He was radicalized in a META group”
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) October 28, 2021
As in "Zuckerberg never 'meta' bit of Far Right propaganda he'd take down." https://t.co/qCoIVmlAiq
— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) October 28, 2021
"Suckerbook" would be quite appropriate as well.....
— CÒѧËŔVÅŤÏ§M SŮX (@McDee85) October 28, 2021
Then came the photo editing...
— HappyToast ★ (@IamHappyToast) October 28, 2021
— Jonny Sharples (@JonnyGabriel) October 28, 2021
I am legally required to post this pic.twitter.com/iwHdCFF7Oc
— Tom Victor (@tomvictor) October 28, 2021
— everest (@everestpipkin) October 28, 2021
You really have to suspect who was behind this new rebrand. Is this a storyline from Succession?
Mark Zuckerberg is like if Kendall Roy was good with computers. https://t.co/ZCVGWt5qg2
— Scott Tobias (@scott_tobias) October 28, 2021
The team behind the Facebook's name change to Meta pic.twitter.com/AWY2lrczsg
— Lights, Camera, Pod (@LightsCameraPod) October 28, 2021
feeling meta pic.twitter.com/clLob5gmir
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) October 28, 2021
And yes, that is a bottle of BBQ sauce on the shelf behind him.
Zuck is just like us! Sauce on the living room shelf pic.twitter.com/nq0QdWISzN
— Anthony Miale (@anferno) October 28, 2021
If we are really analysing the word “meta” then you have to say that the Animaniacs were doing it long before Zuckerberg.
We did meta first.
— 📣 Animaniacs NEW SEASON November 5! (@TheAnimaniacs) October 28, 2021
Even Jack Dorsey, the boss of Twitter, couldn’t resist taking a pop.
meta: referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential.
— jack⚡️ (@jack) October 28, 2021
All we can say is thank goodness they didn’t go with something like Skynet or The Matrix. That would have been too nightmarish to live with.
