Facebook Meta: how this change has negatively impacted the brand’s reputation and image

In 2021, the company formerly called Facebook changed its name to Meta. Since then, Meta has garnered only controversy and loss.

But how did this happen? How has this juggernaut of social media fallen so far? Let’s take a look at what went wrong with Facebook Meta.

For starters, let’s look at the reason the company behind Facebook and Instagram changed their name: the Metaverse.

The Fall (of Meta)

According to DW, the Metaverse is, “A digital reality, akin to the World Wide Web, but combining aspects of social media, augmented reality, online gaming and cryptocurrencies to allow users to act and interact virtually.” 

Zuckerberg was ecstatic and poured billions into this project. However, the general public has been ambivalent at best. The Metaverse has become less popular as time passed, only about 200,00 initial 500,000 participants are using the site monthly as of late 2022.

The Layoffs

As a result of this failure, Meta has been hemorrhaging money since 2022, a trend that will most likely continue here in 2023.

In Nov. 2022, Zuckerberg laid off about 11,000 employees. Only a few days ago Zuckerberg laid off another 10,000 employees. Zuckerburg elaborated on his reasoning for doing so in a blog post.

“To become a leaner and more efficient company” and “Restructuring plans focused on flattening our organization, canceling lower priority projects, and reducing our hiring rates,” Zuckerburg said.

The Competition

On top of all this, there is increasing competition from other social media giants like Snapchat and TikTok. TikTok in particular has boomed in recent years, which is very concerning for Facebook.

There are a lot of factors contributing to Facebook’s worry: TikTok has a wider target audience, an easy-to-navigate interface, and arguably pioneered the modern short-video entertainment format. Many others have tried to piggyback off TikTok’s success, namely YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, but none of them has compared to the fast-growing company.

In light of all this, Facebook/Meta faces an uncertain future. Only time will tell if this media giant can get back on its feet.