Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday changed the tech giant's corporate name to Meta Platforms Inc (Meta for short to emphasise the company's "metaverse" vision.

"From now on we are going to be Metaverse first, not Facebook... I hope that people come to know the Meta brand and the future that we stand for," Zuckerberg said in his keynote address at the company's annual developer's conference.

The word ‘meta’ comes from a Greek word that means ‘beyond’. Earlier in 2015, Google also rebranded itself as Alphabet. However, the new name is yet to catch on.

Come December 1 and the company will change its stock ticker from ‘FB’ to ‘MVRS’. On Thursday, the firm also unveiled a new sign at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Facebook's thumbs-up "Like" logo has been replaced with a blue infinity-shape icon.

However, the social media platform – the website and the mobile app – will still be called Facebook and Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will remain the way they were for users.

Why the name change?

Explaining the change in name, Zuckerberg said Facebook represents an ‘iconic social media company’ that he launched from his college dorm room in 2004. However, the name no longer encompasses everything the company does.

"Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can't possibly represent everything that we're doing today, let alone in the future... It is time for us to adopt a new company brand to encompass everything that we do, to reflect who we are and what we hope to build," Zuckerberg said.

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He said the company's future will focus on building virtual reality products that connect users through a different medium. Zuckerberg predicted that one billion people will be on the Metaverse in the next decade and said, "I hope that people come to know the Meta brand and the future that we stand for.”

How will Meta be different from Facebook?

The addition of virtual reality tools will be the fundamental difference between Facebook and Meta. Like a science fiction movie, Metaverse is likely to provide a three-dimensional virtual space where users will be allowed to create their digital avatars.

Simply put, Metaverse users will get to enjoy a host of features in their digital avatars. So, people will get to play video games, watch movies, attend concerts, collaborate with colleagues, and gather with friends without even leaving their living room.

The next major difference will be that of user privacy. According to Zuckerberg, privacy and safety controls will be built into the Metaverse from day one. He promised that Metaverse users will get to decide when they want to be with other people, when they want to block someone from appearing in their space, and when they want to take a break.

The company CEO also talked about his plans of including cryptocurrency and NFT into the Meta platform.

Re-branding strategy?

Facebook's name change is being seen as a re-branding strategy of the tech giant trying to move past a ‘scandal-plagued’ social network identity.

The name change comes days after a former Facebook employee, Frances Haugen leaked thousands of documents that show Facebook executives knew about the misinformation that was spread by the platform but didn't do enough to combat the issue.

"We've learned a lot from struggling with social issues and living under closed platforms, and now it is time to take everything that we've learned and help build the next chapter," Zuckerberg said.

(Edited by : Kanishka Sarkar)