Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

According to a former employee, an executive at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, once said it was successful because the company's renaming Meta attracted more multimedia attention.

When Facebook first announced its name change to Meta in October 2021, the company said it was only to focus more on the new vision of "meta-universe first". But it wasn't long before Chris Cox, the company's chief product officer, cheerfully announced that the new name had successfully grabbed the headlines, reducing negative coverage of the company.

Tuyuan Pexels just three weeks before Facebook announced the name change, whistleblower Frances Hogan (FrancesHaugen) exposed a series of Facebook internal documents, attracted public attention, various media began to report. The content of these disclosures has received extensive media attention around the world. Specifically, it includes 5.8 million high-profile users posting posts that are not subject to censorship; Facebook ignores the public interest in order to make more money, including negative treatment of fake news, hate speech, mental health of teenagers, and so on.

After Facebook announced the name change, there was speculation at the time that the timing had something to do with whistleblower disclosures, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg (MarkZuckerberg) stressed that the link was "absurd". About two weeks later, however, Cox admitted the connection.

One former employee recalled that in November last year, Cox and then chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg hosted a full-staff communication event. Someone asked about the overall effect of Meta's renaming, and according to employees, Cox said the renaming was successful, and he compared the number of media reports of renaming with reported incidents as a measure.

"the number of reports is more than twice that of Facebook's internal documents," he said at the meeting, and the tone was "neutral to positive."

"when it comes to changing the media outlet, you can only think about it," Cox added. "it's really a big deal, because Facebook internal documents are big news, especially in the United States." A former employee was surprised by this answer. They and other colleagues thought it was "a straightforward statement that the company was renamed to attract media attention," the person familiar with the matter said. "

Although Zuckerberg has yet to achieve financial success in promoting the multibillion-dollar meta-universe project, the name change has sparked months of media coverage of meta-universe, and the new name has taken root. As Eric Schiff, chief executive of ThePatriarch Organization, the private equity firm, puts it, changing the name is "an excellent strategy that diverts attention, rebuilds the brand image and washes away the troubles of the past".

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