Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed during today’s Connect 2021 event that his company will be doing business under a completely new name. The company behind the world’s biggest social network will now be referred to as Meta, a name that was chosen to reflect the company’s new focus on the metaverse—a term that’s used to describe a future, advanced internet leveraging 3D virtual spaces and other modern technologies. According to Meta, the metaverse will be a clear evolution of the web that allows users to do many things together, even those that wouldn’t be possible in the physical world.
From Mark Zuckerberg, who penned a lengthy letter elaborating on the new direction for his company and what the metaverse will enable:
In this future, you will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents’ living room to catch up. This will open up more opportunity no matter where you live. You’ll be able to spend more time on what matters to you, cut down time in traffic, and reduce your carbon footprint.
Think about how many physical things you have today that could just be holograms in the future. Your TV, your perfect work setup with multiple monitors, your board games and more — instead of physical things assembled in factories, they’ll be holograms designed by creators around the world.
You’ll move across these experiences on different devices — augmented reality glasses to stay present in the physical world, virtual reality to be fully immersed, and phones and computers to jump in from existing platforms. This isn’t about spending more time on screens; it’s about making the time we already spend better.
Meta has also announced a range of tools that will help people build out the metaverse. They include the Presence Platform, which will enable new mixed reality experiences on the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, as well as a $150 million investment toward a training program for new creators.
Source: Facebook