Facebook is the parent company of Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook (the social site), and Oculus VR. Recently, there have been many rumors storming the internet suggesting that Facebook could change the name of its parent company. The announcement of this new name is expected at the company’s annual connect conference that will take place on 28th October 2021. 

With a new name, Facebook (the social site), Instagram, and the other platforms currently under Facebook (the company) will now be managed by another Umbrella company. We have already seen this happening with other companies, including Google’s rebrand to Alphabet Inc in 2015 and Snapchat to Snap Inc in 2016. 

We also saw Apple rebrand from Apple Computer to Apple Inc in 2007, when Steve Jobs wanted people to see Apple as a company that offers tech solutions and not just a computer company. 

Currently, the new name that we expect Facebook to reveal is known by just a handful of people internally. Even some of the senior executives at Facebook don’t know what to expect. However, most people hope the name to have something related to Horizons. 

Facebook has not yet made an official statement about this rumor, so the reason for this change is still unclear. However, the most apparent reason for this change is to make the company’s intention clear to everyone; Facebook wants to be more than just a social media company that we know today. They want to be looked at as a tech company with the potential to disrupt any industry using its tech innovations. 

The company already has over 10,000 employees building consumer hardware devices, including AR/VR glasses. Mark Zuckerberg, the current CEO of Facebook, believes VR and AR will soon become a big thing, and the only way of making this a reality is by creating the best VR/AR hardware to take advantage. 

In July 2021, Mark Zuckerberg said he wants Facebook to be looked at as a Metaverse company. Metaverse refers to some form of digital reality that integrates aspects of social media, digital reality, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and cryptocurrencies. Facebook intends to venture into all these technologies to allow users to do much more virtually beyond texting and sharing images.  

The rebrand could also take some pressure off Facebook due to the privacy-related scandals they’ve heard in the last decade. Facebook is no longer that “darling brand” that everyone loved during its early days. Thus, changing the name to something different could rejuvenate the brand popularity they enjoyed during their first 5 to 10 years in the tech business.

It wasn’t so long ago that online gambling and casino games were illegal across the US. Gen Z is likely to be the first to live most of their adult lives in a world where they can legally bet real money on games like poker and on sporting events. The change is happening slowly but it is inevitable at this point.

Gen Z have largely been left to figure out the ins and outs of online gaming on their own, but what do they need to know before they get started?

Sports Betting is Huge.

Ever wonder who benefits from some of the strange promotional boxing events that keep popping up? Sure, the boxers get a decent paycheck, but the real money is in the betting that happens on the side. Many states have legalized sports betting in the past few years, opening up a whole new side of the gaming industry. Expect to see more and more sites pop up to help Gen Z explore this new frontier of gambling as it becomes readily available in more states.

Online Poker is Making a Comeback.

Nevada, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Michigan are the only states that have legalized online poker right now. But the matter is being discussed in several other states, and just a few years ago, Nevada and New Jersey were alone. Of course, we’re still not to the levels we were at pre-2011 when online poker played with real money was banned, but it seems that the industry is slowly recovering.

Depending on how the wind blows, this could be an excellent opportunity to get in early when it does arrive in your state. It may take several more years to reach the player levels we were at in the poker boom of the 00s, but that does seem to be the direction its headed now.

Other Games Won’t Be Far Behind.

Poker is the most popular game to play online, but it often leads to people trying a wider variety of games. Slots as well as other table games like blackjack are likely to follow on sites that offer sports betting or online poker. This creates the possibility for complete online casinos to pop up across the web and, with them, the chance for the industry to really find its footing.

What will online casinos look like in the future? That really depends on how the industry is willing to change. It is unlikely that physical venues will be replaced entirely but it wouldn’t be a stretch to expect sites to carry the brands of well known and established venues like Caesars’ Palace or The Bellagio into the digital world.

The Future Looks Different.

The future of online casinos will be full of innovation. With this much money to be made, brands will start to fight for customers, taking advantage of how new tech continues to drop in price. It wasn’t long ago when VR goggles were reserved for the most dedicated of fans, but now they’re becoming more and more commonplace. The same is happening with AR glasses. Expect online casinos to become fertile ground for cryptocurrency, which is thriving at the moment.

The casino industry is notoriously slow to change and adapt, but the events of the past few years have given them more cause to embrace emerging technologies.

Much of the online casino industry will be left up to Gen Z to explore on their own. It is important to approach these changes with caution, but they represent an exciting realm of online entertainment. We all just have to wait to see how quickly those changes come about.

The year 2021 has been big for digital media innovation and competition as many large platforms compete for a monopoly over the online space of social networking.

It isn’t uncommon for the giants to recreate or remix successful features that the other competitors have successfully utilized. 

Among those is the fullscreen scroll page, an addition implemented by TikTok off the influence of former platform Vine. 

The scroll page allowed for people to see content at speeds never seen before. Algorithms supplied videos at a rate that allowed users to watch, scroll, watch again, and always be met with another video to see when they scrolled. It simplified the user experience and reduced consumer workload. 

Reddit, like Instagram, has added a section that’s comparable to the TikTok scroll system. 

Now, users can experience the exact same scrolling wheel of videos that are being used by other social media platforms in some variation. However, unlike Instagram and TikTok, Reddit’s version of the like button is an upvote vs. a downvote. 

Redditors can also skip through videos as they watch them, choosing to view only certain parts if they’d like. This contrasts TikTok, which until recently, didn’t have such an option available. 

That stopped, though, when user complaints about sitting through excessively long videos to get to the part they wanted to see finally pushed the company towards action. 

Going forward, a few systems have emerged as the leading representatives of the scroll page:

• Instagram Reels
• TikTok For You Page
• Reddit *unnamed feature*

As of now, Reddit has 52 million daily users. Representing one of the biggest and most loyal internet niches, the platform certainly has power to move markets.

Competition in this field is especially useful-companies fighting over their user bases are constantly innovating to provide a better product than everyone else. 

Reddit has yet to provide a substantial comment on how their algorithms work and what the feature will be called.