Facebook announced that it has changed its company name to Meta, on Thursday, October 28, 2021. 

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the name change at the Facebook Connect augmented and virtual reality conference. The new name is to reflect the company’s work investing in the metaverse, an immersive digital world. It is a part of the company’s efforts to move away from being known as just a social media company.

“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,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said according to CNBC.

The company also said that it expects to spend about $10 billion over the next year developing the technologies that are required for building the metaverse.

The metaverse has been described as a “virtual environment” in which you can go inside to meet, work, and play using reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps, etc.

The Facebook app will not be changing its name, neither will Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. However, starting December 1st, its stock will start trading under a new symbol, MVRS.