To Prove Efficiency, Zuckerberg Should Reverse Name Change

Here’s an idea for Meta Platforms as we wait for the company to unveil another round of layoffs: Mark Zuckerberg should reverse his decision to change the name of the company to Meta. That label might have made sense (at least to him) back at the height of the boom times, in the fall of 2021, when his focus was all metaverse, all the time. The Facebook brand felt a little tarnished by various misinformation dramas. But it’s a different world now. Zuckerberg has embraced efficiency (hence the second round of job cuts in five months), as well as tech’s latest buzzy concept, generative AI. If Zuckerberg really wants to be in the cool club, he could adopt AI Platforms as the company’s new moniker. But a better idea would be to switch back to Facebook.

After all, as Facebook app head Tom Alison pointed out in a blog post on Tuesday, “Facebook is not dead nor dying, but in fact alive and thriving with 2 billion daily active users.” That’s a very good point. It’s easy to forget that Meta’s flagship app remains incredibly popular with ordinary people around the world—and a key part of a hugely profitable app business. Sure, the app isn’t growing much anymore and its users are trending older. In that sense, it’s like the CBS television network, which is not hip and is popular mostly with older people, particularly in the middle of the country. But that’s not nothing. Lots of companies would kill for CBS’ reach. And the same is even more true of Facebook.