What does Meta really mean?

On October 28, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced a new Meta brand, which should replace the Facebook group brand. Now it is emphasized that the parent company is associated not only with the main product, the social network Facebook.

At first glance, it seems that this is an attempt to remind users and shareholders that the company also owns other products, such as the famous WhatsApp messenger, Instagram social network, Oculus VR technology.

However, search queries on the Internet "What is Meta?", "What does Meta mean?" mean that such a simple explanation is not enough for users.

And apparently, they're right. In English, Meta is a prefix with many meanings of "denotes change, transformation, permutation, or substitution" and "beyond, above, at a higher level". Thus, the change in the name of the parent company should emphasize the desire to step over the existing idea of the future.

But what does Meta itself see this future like? Mr. Zuckerberg himself says about it as the successor to the mobile internet: "A social, 3D virtual space where you can share immersive experiences with other people, even when you can't be together in person — and do things together you couldn't do in the physical world." Also, he wrote: "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."

Sounds fascinating, but what analysts think about it? Azeem Azhar, author of Exponential,says: "It's not going to be something that will be contained in a VR headset that sits in the corner of the living room. It will be a set of things that will show up across our different applications and across our devices, as those devices get better and better. ”

As if responding to him, technology analyst Benedict Evans described Facebook's motivation in a simple way: "If there is something after smartphones, Facebook wants to be landlord, not a tenant."

Does this mean that users will abandon the current ways of interacting in favor of the new ones that Meta offers? Most likely not. Despite the wide range of ways of audiovisual interaction, simple SMS are still as popular as they were 20 years ago. Moreover, simple mobile phones without smartphone functions are still selling well, which indicates the presence of large social groups that prefer live communication to virtual.

Meta itself estimates the period of transition of users to its metaverse at 10-15 years and investments of $10 billion Their plans to employ 10,000 residents of the European Union also indicate the seriousness of intentions. However, given the company's huge profit (more than $9 billion in the third quarter of 2021), it can be assumed that management shows some restraint in assessing the success of such a transition.

What risks accompany such a transition? Probably, the $5 billion fine received in 2019 from the FTC made Facebook more cautious.

Mr Zuckerberg said: "Privacy and safety need to be built into the metaverse from day one."

But should we all believe it? Ex-Facebook manager, whistleblower Frances Haugen dealt a powerful blow to the reputation of her former employer: "over and over again, we see Facebook prioritising expansion and growth". She felt the resources could be better used on improving the safety of Facebook.

The leakage of Facebook internal documents regarding the work of internal mechanisms for moderation and ranking of publications, as well as the consequences of their work, caused heated discussion of this topic. This was followed by an indefinite delay in launching the children's version of Instagram.

The company itself has also announced that it removes 1 billion user face templates from its databases, and from now on, the method of identifying users by its image will not be available on the Meta platform. In any case, until the legislative framework in this area appears. It looks like an attempt to prevent new claims from regulators, as well as to regain the trust of users.

Time will tell whether the Facebook's metamorphosis will help to solve these issues and to immerse us in a new metaverse.