How will the Facebook Change of Name to Meta Affect Africa?

On Thursday 28th of October Facebook CEO Mark Zukerberg announced a change of name to Meta. During the annual Connect augmented and virtual reality conference hosted by Facebook, Zukerberg spilled the beans saying,

“From now on, we’ll be metaverse first, not Facebook first. Over time, you won’t need to use Facebook to use our other services.”

The idea behind Meta, according to the company, is to act as a reminder that there is always more to build. The rebranding is part of the firms’ effort to move away from being known solely as a social networking company and instead focus on creating the metaverse, which is a virtual-reality platform where users will interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.

Facebook’s new brand name Meta will be holding the company for its other apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

“Today we are seen as a social media company, but in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started”, Mr Zuckerberg said.

“We believe the metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet. We’ll be able to feel present – like we’re right there with people no matter how far apart we actually are. We’ll be able to express ourselves in new joyful, completely immersive ways”.

Last week, the company said it would hire 10,000 people in the European Union to build its metaverse project. It is investing $10 billion in the project.  

How Will the Facebook Name Change to Meta Affect Africa?

Since the launch of Facebook, now Meta and also its other social platforms, the Africa space has stood out as one of its major consumers, ranging from millions of users both new and old. One can then appropriately ask how this innovation will affect and find a balance on the continent. 

However, the new name as expected will come with a variety of changes to some aspects of Facebook’s operations. Although the company said the organisational structure will remain unchanged, but how the firm presents its financials will. 

Facebook will report on two operating segments starting in the fourth quarter of 2021: Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The business also announced that its stock symbol will change from FB to MVRS on December 1. Facebook also assured users that the decision has no bearing on how the corporation uses or shares data.

The company also revealed new tools to help people build for the metaverse at the Connect conference, including the Presence Platform which will allow for new mixed reality experiences on the Quest 2, and a $150 million investment in immersive learning to train the next generation of artists.

One cannot properly state how they intend to implement these plans in every continent most especially Africa. Or if Africa is ready for the metaverse platform. We can only be patient to see the outcome it will produce and how the continent will effectively adopt this innovation. 

“Our hope is that within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers,” Zuckerberg wrote in a letter on Thursday.

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