Facebook's company name changed to Meta as Mark Zuckerberg plans to focus on developing the metaverse

Facebook, a company that encompasses more than just the popular social media platform of the same name, is being renamed Meta in a move that CEO Mark Zuckerberg says reflects plans for the organization to work on developing the metaverse.

The company's various apps and technologies, some of which also include the social media platform Instagram and Oculus virtual reality headsets, will now fall under the new brand, the company explained in a post.

"Today at Connect 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Meta, which brings together our apps and technologies under one new company brand. Meta's focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses," the post says.

In a founder's letter, Zuckerberg described the metaverse as an immersive experience that will enable individuals to use technology to feel like they are present with other people.

"We've gone from desktop to web to mobile; from text to photos to video. But this isn't the end of the line," Zuckerberg wrote. "The next platform will be even more immersive — an embodied internet where you're in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build."

People would use various technologies such as virtual and augmented reality hardware to experience this metaverse that Zuckerberg says would enable people to virtually attend concerts virtually or visit with family in their living room.

Here's more from Zuckerberg's founder's letter:

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.

Zuckerberg is hoping to shift public perception of the company so it is eventually viewed "as a metaverse company."

"Right now our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can't possibly represent everything we're doing today, let alone in the future. Over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we're building towards," he said in the letter.