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| Meta paid $60 million for naming rights |
A regulatory document shows that Meta, the owner of the social network Facebook, spent $60 million to acquire a South Dakota-branded asset called the Meta Financial Group.
The Silicon Valley giant is relying on the Meta name to discover a new world of virtual reality marketing that it sees as the future of the Internet.
The agreement underscores the importance of this name for them. The company expects its focus on the Metaverse, a shared digital space that can be accessed online through a range of devices, to fruition in the coming years.
Meta Financial Group announced in a regulatory document that a Delaware company called Beige Key LLC has agreed to exchange $60 million in cash for global rights to the company's name.
A Meta spokesperson said, “Beige Key LLC is a subsidiary of us and we have earned these brand values.
In addition to providing savings, credit, card, and business loans through its subsidiary MetaBank, Meta Financial Group's institutional partners also include government agencies and financial technology companies that provide financial inclusion services.
Facebook announced in October that its parent company had changed its name to Meta. The tech giant, which has invested heavily in virtual and augmented reality, sees Metaverse as the successor to the mobile internet.
"In the Metaverse you can hang out with friends, work, play, study, shop, create and more. It's not necessarily about spending more time online. Instead, it's about making the time you spend online more useful," explains Facebook.
The company last week opened the Horizon Worlds app to users over the age of 18 in the United States and Canada. VR headset users can play games and interact as an avatar.
This transaction underscores the importance of the Meta name to the company
The Metaverse concept has already appeared in commercials for several Silicon Valley companies and requires collaboration between tech giants, but it still takes more than ten years to fully implement.
A spokesperson for Facebook's parent company said he had spoken to Meta Financial Group before the name change was announced.
Meta Financial Group said in the filing that it began reviewing its branding strategy earlier this year. However, a MetaBank spokesperson did not wish to comment on any negotiations other than the content of the deposit.
With Facebook taking a leadership role in the development of the Metaverse, it has become clear that the Metaverse is not a universal product that the company can develop on its own. She said the metaverse exists just like the internet whether Facebook exists or not.