Americans Are Not Into Facebook’s New Name — and Don’t Want to Enter the Metaverse, Either

Last week, Facebook Inc. announced its new corporate name, Meta, along with a new logo as part of the company’s strategic shift toward focusing on the metaverse. The public’s initial reaction to the rebrand is less than enthusiastic, according to new data from Morning Consult.

A plurality of Americans said they have an unfavorable opinion of the new name. Meta’s new logo received a slightly less chilly reception, with respondents more evenly split on the warped infinity symbol.

What the numbers say

• Facebook has a net favorability rating of 16 percentage points, with 55 percent of U.S. adults saying they have a favorable opinion and 39 percent saying they have an unfavorable opinion of the social media giant. 
• They’re not fans of the name Meta, however. One-quarter (25 percent) of adults said they have a favorable opinion of Meta, while 40 percent said they have an unfavorable opinion. Roughly one-third (34 percent) said they have no opinion at all.
• Consumers feel less strongly about the Meta logo. Roughly 1 in 3 (32 percent) said they have a favorable opinion of the symbol after they were shown a photo of it. A similar share (30 percent) reacted unfavorably, and 37 percent said they have no opinion about it. 
• Generation Z, a group known for its vocal skepticism and criticism of large corporations, expressed greater enthusiasm for the new logo than the general public. Forty-four percent of that cohort said they have a favorable opinion of the logo, compared to 31 percent who said the opposite, resulting in a net favorability rating of 13 points. Facebook has said it hopes to attract more young users as part of its shift toward building the metaverse.
• Americans feel unfavorably toward Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg most of all. Zuckerberg received a net favorability rating of negative 32 points. More than half (54 percent) of adults said they have an unfavorable opinion of him, compared with 22 percent who said the opposite.

What the numbers say

• Meta might be all in on it, but most consumers aren’t sold on the metaverse yet: 68 percent said that, based on what they know, they’re not interested in using Meta’s virtual and augmented reality project. 
• The strongest interest in the metaverse comes from men and younger generations, as well as adults who live in urban areas.

What the numbers say

• Zuckerberg told the public that the new corporate name is meant to better “reflect who we are and the future we hope to build,” a reference to his aspirations of building a metaverse, which he describes as “an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it.” The public, however, is not so sure that’s Meta’s main motivation for changing its name.
• Roughly half (51 percent) of Americans said that if they had to guess, they would say Meta rebranded in an effort to distance itself from negative press. The company has been the subject of scrutiny following the leak of internal documents that have come to be known as the “Facebook Files” or “Facebook Papers.” Forty-four percent of consumers said they’ve heard about these leaked documents.

The poll was conducted Oct. 29-Nov. 1, 2021, among 2,200 U.S. adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.