The Verge reported that Facebook is planning a rebrand of its corporate name. The Information followed up on this with a report that this name change was because of lower usage of the ‘Hey Facebook’ digital assistant command compared to ‘Hey Portal’. The lower usage resulted in worse retention to the Portal device. The name ‘Facebook’ is literally holding back the device’s success. Talk about lost trust!
As an Oculus Quest user myself, I can affirm that saying ‘Hey Facebook’ is weird. The product of facebook still has unquestionable value because all my people are posting updates there. That is a powerful reason to keep using it. But I definitely don’t want more Facebook in my life and I would have preferred ‘Hey Oculus’. It seems that my experience reflects that of many others.
“I don't know why they don't just pick a name like Amazon did. Last thing I want to do is speak directly to the corporation by name. At least let me pretend it's a human-scale AI and not the reality of a hundred thousand machines in the cloud mining my voiceprint for profits.” - Hot take from a fellow Oculus device user
In my earlier post about safety’s impact, I shared how a brand can suffer due to safety issues. That may be a factor here, especially considering Haugen’s recent whisteblowing, but I suspect privacy concerns are also on the customer’s mind. Voice is intimate and “Facebook” is often associated with privacy concerns.
A fascinating inference I’m making from the Information’s coverage is that the Portal team involved with this decision nearly certainly A/B tested it. That’s the only way they could get high confidence that the name was the issue. Doing that test takes guts. Further, it shows remarkable pragmatism by Facebook to actually use that data to go change their corporate name! Mark ain’t no dummy.
If true, this is a remarkable change on Facebook’s part. I’m curious if they will roll it out further by changing the name of the account. Right we all have to connect a ‘Facebook’ account to use Oculus. If they change the account name, they will further liberate their metaverse pursuits and product innovation from that brand. On the other hand, they may lose leverage with their biggest asset (and liability).