Facebook set to announce rebrand and restructuring
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to announce a rebranding and restructuring of the company at its annual Connect conference today.
The rumored change, like Google’s 2015 rebrand to ‘Alphabet,’ will restructure Facebook and its subsidiaries under a new parent company. It comes as the company faces significant government scrutiny after a major leak of internal documents revealing the company deliberately puts profits over safety and encourages political partisanship. As such, the rebranding will look to gain distance from the increasingly politically toxic Facebook brand.
The rebrand also reflects a desire to shift focus from traditional social media towards virtual and augmented reality and the ‘metaverse.’ Zuckerberg has bet that the metaverse—a catch-all term for networks of virtual spaces—will be revolutionized by VR and AR by relocating both social media and work into a virtual environment. This move is a long-term bet, as VR remains trapped in the uncanny valley for now, where facial cues are unreadable and glitches disturbing.
The rebrand may take some heat off the metaverse project, but it will not halt the government scrutiny of Facebook’s big moneymakers—its namesake, Instagram, and WhatsApp—which will likely be subjected to strict regulation and oversight going forward.
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