Facebook will rebrand as Meta, says Zuckerberg, plans to focus on Metaverse

On Thursday, Facebook announced it will change its name to Meta.

"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," said CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the Facebook Connect augmented and virtual reality conference.

The conference itself reflects the company's broader ambitions beyond the realm of social media and into the realm of what Zuckerberg is calling "the metaverse." 

"Our hope is that within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers," wrote Zuckerberg in a founder's letter. 

Facebook said it will spend $10 billion in the coming year developing the technologies required to build the metaverse. "We believe the metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet," said Zuckerberg.

Over the last several years, the company has ramped up its efforts in the realm of virtual reality, including its highly popular Oculus virtual-reality headsets. The company has indicated that virtual and augmented reality will play a significant role in its strategy moving forward.

Come December 1, the company's stock ticker will switch from "FB" to "MVRS."