Facebook Meta
At the company’s Connect event in October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebrand of the global social network. Under the new name – Meta – the organisation aims to evolve social connections. A statement on its page reads:
“Our company’s vision is to help bring the metaverse to life, so we are changing our name to reflect our commitment to this future.”
That’s all well and good, but what exactly is the metaverse? And what does it mean for the average Facebook user?
What is the metaverse?
According to USA Today, the metaverse is a combination of several elements of technology which create a digital universe in which users ‘live’. These technologies include virtual reality, augmented reality and video.
According to Zuckerberg, Facebook Meta is about using digital avatars to connect through work, travel, or entertainment using VR headsets. He claims it could replace the internet as we know it, placing users within the experience as opposed to simply looking at it.
Existing metaverses
Technically, metaverses already exist, having grown from the world of gaming. Roblox and Minecraft are just two examples, where users share a virtual space and experiences with others represented by digital avatars. Younger users are already familiar with aspects of a metaverse: some 12 million people saw a virtualised Travis Scott concert in Fortnite in 2020.
What does the metaverse mean for me?
For the average user, the metaverse currently means relatively little beyond the examples given above. If you’re a gamer, you’re likely familiar with the concept to some degree. If you’re a cynic, you might argue that this Facebook rebrand is born of the company’s recent heavy criticism and ageing user profile.
But Mark Zuckerberg claims Facebook is one small part of the over-arching metaverse, and expects the full-blown experience that he’s outlining to be some five to ten years in the making.
For businesses, the metaverse may bring opportunities to enhance meetings with VR, saving the need for long-distance travel, or to use the metaverse to promote products in a way that isn’t possible on Facebook as we know it. Other uses may include the ability to educate or create in a virtual space, providing learners or developers with a much more immersive and engaging experience than simply watching online videos or lectures.
So, since the metaverse is a vision of a future way of how we might interact with others – an aspiration towards a digital future, if you will – what are tech industry figures talking about when they refer to the metaverse in a present context? Well, mostly, they mean a digital platform that in some way incorporates one or more of the following:
- Feature sets that overlap with real-world activities
- Real-time 3D computer graphics and personalised avatars
- Person-to-person interactions that are experience-based rather than competitive (as with traditional games)
- Support for users who want to create virtual environments and objects
- The ability to profit from virtual goods
- Designs that may be suited for virtual and augmented reality headsets
We hope this helps you get your head around the Facebook rebrand and what it means for you right now, as well as in the future. You can, of course, keep an eye out for any opportunities that emerge, and have a chat to our Kent social media agency experts if you’d like help taking advantage of the metaverse.
