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  • I believe the metaverse is the next chapter for the internet.

  • And it's the next chapter for our company too.

  • I've been thinking a lot about what this means for our company

  • and who we are as we embark on this journey.

  • We're a company that focuses on connecting people.

  • While most other tech companies focus on how people interact with technology,

  • we focus on building technology so people can interact with each other.

  • One of the reasons I started Facebook was that at the time

  • you could use the internet to find almost anything.

  • Information, news, movies, music, shopping.

  • Except for the thing that matters most of all: people.

  • 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.

  • Facebook was born in a specific time and place.

  • A college campus. The web.

  • It was what we could build at the time to put people back

  • into our experience of technology.

  • But connecting was always much bigger.

  • From way earlier on, I remember sitting in middle school classes

  • sketching in my notebooks, ideas that I wanted to code when I got home.

  • And even though I didn't have the skill or technology to build it yet,

  • it was always clear that the dream was to

  • feel present with the people we care about.

  • Isn't that the ultimate promise of technology.

  • To be together with anyone, to be able to

  • teleport anywhere, and to create and experience anything?

  • Yet here we are in 2021

  • and our devices are still designed around apps, not people.

  • The experiences we're allowed to build and use

  • are more tightly controlled than ever.

  • And high taxes on creative new ideas are stifling.

  • This is not the way that we are meant to use technology.

  • The metaverse gives us an opportunity to change that if we build it well.

  • But it's going to take all of us, creators, developers, companies of all sizes.

  • Together, we can finally put people at the center of our technology --

  • and deliver an experience where we are present with each other.

  • Together we can create a more open platform --

  • with more ways to discover experiences

  • and more interoperability between them.

  • And together, we can unlock a massively bigger creative economy.

  • I know the internet story isn't straightforward.

  • Every chapter means new voices and new ideas.

  • And yes, there will be challenges and risks

  • and disruption of established interests.

  • But there will also be opportunities and benefits

  • that we can't even imagine yet.

  • For connection, for creation, for learning, and joy.

  • We'll all need to work together from the beginning to bring the best

  • possible version of this future to life.

  • A future where with just a pair of glasses,

  • you will be able to step beyond the

  • physical world and into the kinds of experiences

  • that we have talked about today.

  • I've been thinking a lot about our identity as we begin this next chapter.

  • Facebook is one of the most used products in the history of the world.

  • It is an iconic social media brand.

  • But increasingly, it just doesn't encompass everything that we do.

  • Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Quest. Now Horizon, Nazaré, and more.

  • Building our social media apps will always be an important focus for us.

  • But right now, our brand is so tightly linked to

  • one product that it can't possibly represent everything

  • that we're doing today, let alone in the future.

  • Over time I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company.

  • And I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we are building towards.

  • We just announced that we are making a fundamental change to our company.

  • We're now looking at and reporting on our business as two different segments.

  • One for our family of apps and one for our work on future platforms.

  • And as part of this, it is time for us to adopt a

  • new company brand to encompass everything that we do.

  • To reflect who we are and what we hope to build,

  • I am proud to announce that starting today,

  • our company is now

  • Meta.

  • Our mission remains the same -- it's still about bringing people together.

  • Our apps and their brands, they're not changing either.

  • And we are still the company that designs technology around people.

  • But now we have a new north star to help bring the metaverse to life.

  • And we have a new name that reflects the full breadth of what we do.

  • And the future that we want to help build.

  • From now on, we're going to be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first.

  • That means that over time you won't need to use Facebook to use our other services.

  • And as our new brand starts showing up in our products,

  • I hope that people come to know the Meta brand

  • and the future that we stand for.

  • I used to love studying Classics.

  • And the word "meta" comes from the Greek word meaning "beyond".

  • For me, it symbolizes that there is always more to build.

  • There's always a next chapter to the story.

  • And for us, it's a story that started in the dorm room

  • and grew beyond anything we could imagine.

  • Into a family of apps that people use to find one another,

  • to find their voice, to start businesses and communities

  • and movements that have changed the world.

  • I'm proud of what we've built so far and excited about what comes next -

  • as we move beyond what's possible today, beyond the constraints of screens,

  • beyond the limits of distance and physics,

  • and towards a future where everyone can be present with each other,

  • create new opportunities, and experience new things.

  • It's a future that is beyond any one company that will be made by all of us.

  • We have built things that have brought people together in new ways.

  • We have learned a lot from struggling with

  • social issues and living under closed platforms.

  • And now, it is time to take everything that we've learned

  • and help build the next chapter.

  • I am dedicating our energy to this

  • more than any other company in the world.

  • And if this is the future that you want to see,

  • then I hope that you will join us.

  • Because the future is going to be beyond anything we can imagine.

I believe the metaverse is the next chapter for the internet.

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