Facebook has officially announced that it will change its name to Meta, signalling a new era for the social media giant

The name change follows months of scrutiny and growing public distrust around the social media giant

The shift will see a new focus on becoming a computing platform specialising in virtual reality and the metaverse

Chief Executive and Founder Mark Zuckerberg says the metaverse is the next frontier and from now on the company will be metaverse first, not Facebook first.

As Zuckerberg says in the video, all of the company’s apps will keep their current names… with Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram now sitting underneath the Meta banner.

The company will begin trading under the Ticker MVRS, as in Metaverse, from December 1st.

Zuckerberg says he has been thinking about the brand a lot as they begin this next chapter, and believes that whilst it is an iconic social media brand, it no longer encompasses everything that they do.

The name change comes as tech giants right around the world try to get their slice of the metaverse, which refers to the combination of virtual and augmented reality technologies in a new online realm.

 Zuckerberg says “Facebook is a company that builds technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started.”