Wagner James Au / New World Notes

I'm not totally surprised by this move but it sure seems to be coming way too soon:

Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect its focus on building the metaverse, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th, but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail.

And while I know some good folks who've helped lead Facebook's many metaverse initiatives in a positive direction, I've also also been writing over the last few years about the many ways this may not be the best move, at least at this time. To count them off in no particular order:

Can Facebook be a "Metaverse" company when its core culture is focused on real identities that are antithetical to the metaverse ideal?

Facebook's corporate culture is rooted in real life identities (and monetizing real life identities), while a core appeal of any successful metaverse platform is the power to re-create one's identity from the ground up. This is particularly true among the very young for whom metaverse creation has become core to experimenting with identity, in a safe virtual space where they won't be judged.

Has Oculus sold enough VR headsets to justify this shift?

Zuckerberg has always made VR central to his Metaverse vision (a massive mistake in my view). But with roughly 5 million Quest 2 headsets sold, Oculus' leading HMD still trails in the market (the PSVR has so far sold more), and remains a niche of a niche of the core gaming market.  

Since Facebook's first attempt at a Metaverse hasn't caught on, why would a name change now help? 

Despite billions of dollars spent already [buying, launching, and promoting Oculus' VR line and its Oculus Store], Facebook's Horizon has by all indications a small and not very engaged userbase, and there's inside word that the project is beset by turnover and design problems. Many more people use their Quest 2 headsets to play in the metaverse platforms of Rec Room and VRChat, than use it for Facebook's own metaverse.  

Is Facebook's brand already too tarnished by controversies around its social media platform to make this change?

There's already been inside talk that this metaverse pivot is in large part a PR ploy to change the subject around the company's many management and policy problems, and a name change now will only amplify that assumption.

Which takes me to my final point:

Does Facebook's own staff trust the company enough to follow management on this metaverse path?

With as many as 1 in 4 Facebook employees not convinced the company's direction and policies are solid and defensible, it's quite unclear whether staff morale is solid enough to make a major move like this.

And these are just the five problems that leap out to me in the 20 minutes or so it took me write this post. But maybe I'm missing something?

UPDATE, 9:22pm: Clarified that Facebook has spent billions not just on Horizon but its many VR products. But worth noting that nearly 10,000 Facebook employees work in the AR/VR group this year, likely amounting in a burn rate of roughly $1.5 billion just in salaries and just this year alone.