Financial Associated Press (Shanghai, editor Xiaoxiang) -- Starting Tuesday, Meta Platforms' internal employees will be collectively referred to as "Metamates" (literally translated as "Meta Partners").
That's the name the company's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, gave to employees in an article posted on his personal Facebook social page on Tuesday. After officially renaming Facebook to Meta Platforms last October and intending to fully shift to the meta-universe business, Zuckerberg is now planning to completely reshape the company's corporate culture.
He said the company would "create something remarkable," "live in the future," and be run by employees it calls "Metamates."
In the open letter to employees within the company, Zuckerberg said, "Late last year we made Meta our new name and vision for the future. As we move into the next chapter and continue to grow, I think it's necessary to rethink the way we work and the values we emphasize. ”
"Our current corporate values date back to 2007. Although this philosophy has been very persistent, the environment has also changed a lot during this period. We are now a company with a global presence. Our communities and services are global and influential. We are also now a metacosmity company dedicated to building social connections between the future. ”
Zuckerberg believes it's time to update the company's values and corporate culture. In the open letter, Zuckerberg proposed a new slogan of "Meta, Metamates, Me" (Meta universe, meta-partner, I).
Zuckerberg pointed out that it is about our sense of responsibility for collective success and our sense of responsibility to each other as teammates, and it will encourage everyone to think about the company and take care of each other at the same time.
When Announcing the company name change last October, Zuckerberg said the shift from online social media to the virtual world was key to attracting a younger audience. In reinventing the company's culture, Zuckerberg said that in addition to building products that billions of people use, the company will focus more on motivating people. "This standard should apply to everything we do," he said.
Andrew Bosworth, an executive who will take over as Meta's chief technology officer, said that the term "Meta, Metamates, Me" borrows from a phrase already used in Instagram — "Ship, Shipmates, Self." Instagram also belongs to Meta.
Can changing the name and shouting slogans make a metacosm?
It is worth mentioning that Silicon Valley companies have long had their own unique mottos, slogans and corporate cultures. Things like Google's "Don't be evil," Apple's "Innovation leads to innovation, and Facebook's original slogan, "Move fast and break things," are all familiar outside the circle.
Big data software company Palantir even had the slogan "Save the Shire" on employees' T-shirts, a famous line from The Lord of the Rings.
For Zuckerberg, the new slogan undoubtedly represents a new beginning for the company. However, Meta's employees seemed to have mixed reactions on Tuesday. On Zuckerberg's personal social page, the letter garnered 54,000 likes. At some internal forums, hundreds of employees also expressed their welcome to the new slogan with heart-shaped expressions. However, in some private chat messages, many employees have expressed more doubts about this.
"How will this change the company? I don't understand what this is for," a Meta engineer seen by The New York Times wrote in a private chat, "and it's confusing that we've been just changing the name of everything." ”
Another employee noted that being a "Metamates" reminded him of sailing, "Does that mean we're on a sinking ship?" He wrote.
Other employees said the new slogan gave the impression that they were "a cog on the machine."
For now, while Meta's headset, the Quest 2, sold well during the shopping season in the fourth quarter of last year, zuckerberg's envisioned metaversymal world is far from tangible. At the same time, the company has faced troubles over the past month has been "endless." Due to poor earnings results, Meta's stock price has fallen by a cumulative 34% since the beginning of the year.
On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also filed a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the company of violating the state's privacy laws by failing to disclose to consumers that they were obtaining biometric information about consumers, particularly facial features. The lawsuit could result in Meta facing billions of dollars in fines.