Facebook Considers Name Change In Major Rebrand – Report

Facebook is at the centre of speculation that the social networking goliath is about to undertake a major rebranding exercise.

Indeed, according to the Verge, with cited a source with direct knowledge of the matter, Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name next week.

Mark Zuckerberg’s company last undertook a minor rebranding exercise with a new logo back in November 2019.

Corporate restructure/rebrand?

That was at a time when Facebook was reeling following damaging data collection revelations following the Cambridge Analytic scandal; its stance of allowing adverts from politicians that contained false or misleading claims; its efforts to tackle hate speech; as well as pressure from regulators and politicians.

Fast forward two years later and it seems not much has changed for Facebook, with it still being under constant pressure, with the last scandals concerning whistleblower complaints about its impact on the mental health of teenagers, and an alleged whitelist that ‘permits’ the accounts of well known people to flout the rules of the platform.

Mark Zuckerberg however reportedly wants to expand beyond social media and a rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing divisions such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, etc, the Verge reported.

This could be a similar structure that Google employed back in 2015, when Google became a separated unit under the corporate ownership of a holding company called Alphabet.

The Facebook name change however could be revealed as soon as 28 October at the company’s annual Connect conference.

Metaverse future

The Verge pointed out that Zuckerberg is keen to expand his futuristic ‘metaverse’ vision he revealed back in July, which will create immersive experiences that connect to work, games and real-world events.

Earlier this week Facebook said it would create 10,000 new jobs at Facebook across the European Union in order to expand the metaverse vision.

However, it should be remembered that this rebranding is just a media report at the moment, and there has been no official confirmation from Facebook itself.

A spokesperson for Facebook told the Guardian newspaper that the company “doesn’t comment on rumour or speculation”.