Facebook Rebrand
When it comes to social networks, none stand as tall as the industry titan Facebook. Recently, however, they’ve gone under a rebranding campaign that signals some fundamental changes to how their company works. Specifically, their parent company, who owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Oculus, recently changed its name to Meta. However, this change has to do with much more than just the name the company goes by. The company stated that they want to create a platform where users can “socialize, work, learn, play, shop and create.” Something of this scale has never truly been completed before. If it were to come to fruition, it might resemble something like the Oasis from Ready Player One, especially given Meta’s current focus on virtual reality.
Regardless, the fact that one of the largest virtual social networks is focusing on expanding its scope so much further is cause for speculation. Given their focus on “uniting” their different apps under a single platform means that all of these separate networks are about to become a lot more connected. Users on Instagram would be closer than ever to users on Facebook. WhatsApp users and Messenger users would undoubtedly be better connected as well. For Meta, this means that it will be easier than ever to mine data and auction it off. As interaction goes up, so does their database of users’ interests and connections. All in all, this is a situation that anyone interested in social networking should be watching very, very closely.