What’s in a name: The company that owns Facebook, Oculus, Instagram and WhatsApp will now go by “Meta,” and starting Dec. 1, will trade under the stock ticker MVRS.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will be “metaverse-first, not Facebook-first,” so people will not need Facebook to use the company’s other services. Meta will be “a more open platform with more ways to discover experiences, more interoperability between them”—but the company said the announcement does not affect how it uses or shares data.

Going forward, it will report financial results in two categories: Family of Apps and Reality Labs. 

What’s Zuckerberg’s metaverse? During Thursday’s Facebook Connect Conference, Zuckerberg’s team described how in the future, technology like augmented reality glasses could help locate objects or anticipate the wearer’s intentions to send a message or turn on a TV. 

In a letter, Zuckerberg described how the metaverse is the next platform, as the internet has become more visual and immersive over time.

The Information estimated that by 2025, the metaverse—which includes both Meta and other platforms with creator economies, like Epic Games and Roblox—could be worth at least US$82 billion thanks to industries like gaming and advertising.

And fascinating as the metaverse may be, for now, advertising makes up the vast majority of Facebook’s US$900-billion business, and represented US$28.3 billion of its US$29 billion in revenue last quarter.

Canadian reactions: Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke tweeted that Zuckerberg’s explanation of the metaverse was one of the “most profound and approachable articulations of how the metaverse might plausibly come together.” Ontario entrepreneur Graeme Moffat noted that the rebrand was likely helped by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s acquisition of Canadian tech company Meta, where Moffat was chief scientist, in 2017. And, Andrew Wilkinson, co-founder of B.C.-based Tiny Capital (an investor in The Logic), also owns a group of agencies called Meta. He tweeted that it’s “awkward.”

One more thing: It may have a new name, but the tech giant is still embroiled in a very concrete whistleblower scandal, and at the centre of an exposé by a consortium of news outlets.

The company faces allegations that it puts profit over safety and well-being. Reports have raised questions of how Facebook has handled events on Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C., as well as vaccine misinformation, teens’ mental health and human rights abuses around the world.

Ahead of Thursday’s event, Zuckerberg told The Information he has not considered stepping down as CEO. In an earnings call this week, he defended his company’s record, saying the recent leaks depicting internal conflict reflect the “open culture, where we encourage discussion and research about our work so we can make progress on many complex issues.”