The leader published a message describing his ambitions for the future, as well as the new values of his group, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Speed, long-term vision and respect must guide Meta employees or “metamates” (the “buddies of Meta”), said Tuesday Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and boss of the social networking giant, whose reputation has been tarnished by numerous scandals.
On his Facebook profile, he listed new values that were supposed to embody the transformation launched with the new name adopted in the fall, Meta.
“We wrote the company values in 2007. They have proven to be very enduring, but a lot has changed,” he said. “We now have a global community and a very widespread impact. And we are now a metaverse company, we are building the future of social connections”.
“Act fast, live in the future”
The metaverse designates a future potential of the Internet, a sort of parallel universe accessible in particular via augmented and virtual reality equipment.
The leader had announced the change while Facebook was going through one of the worst crises in its history, when a whistleblower accused his ex-company of “putting profits before the safety” of its users.
After various data privacy scandals, and as authorities investigate possible competition law breaches, the new name has been interpreted as an attempt to distract from data privacy concerns. Facebook and Instagram.
“Act fast”, “focus on long-term impact”, “build great things”, “live in the future”, “be direct and respect your colleagues” are now the principles of “metamates”, instead of “be bold” and “focus on impact”.
Until now, the American group had drawn the wrath of many elected officials, associations and authorities, while achieving economic performance that delighted Wall Street. But it recently disappointed investors with declining net profit in the fourth quarter of 2021 and stagnating user numbers.
In reaction, Mark Zuckerberg stressed that the construction of the metaverse, expensive, would take time. “While the direction is clear, our path is not yet fully defined,” he told analysts on a Feb. 2 conference call.
Meta further announced on Tuesday that Facebook’s “news feed” (“news feed”) was becoming the “feed”.
The platform, which is regularly criticized for spreading misinformation, has been trying since the last US presidential election to move away from political content to focus on exchanges between relatives and communities of interest.
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