INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Facebook wants more people to know it owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus while still maintaining a distinct identity for its main app
So today Facebook launched a new capitalization and typography format for its company name, using all capital letters and a shifting color
scheme that highlights Instagram purple gradient and WhatsApp green tint.
&Over the coming weeks, we will start using the new brand within
our products and marketing materials, including a new company website,& Facebook CMO Antonio Lucio writes
For example, the bolder &from FACEBOOK& branding will appear at the bottom of the Instagram login screen and settings menu
Facebook previously used a blue or white lowercase &f& as a logo.
Facebook had considered moving to a different name for the overarching
Lucio tells me &We had to consider all options but decided that it was important to keep the company name
We always have been and will continue to be Facebook
It was important to retain the company name in order to own what we stand for, the decisions we make, our responsibility to people, and how
our brands relate to each other.& It true that ditching the top-level name could have been seen as an effort to ditch its problematic
past.
Facebook began its rebranding process in June, adding &from Facebook& taglines to its products
The Information reported Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was unsatisfied with the credit Facebook was getting for owning Instagram and
WhatsApp.
Zuckerberg double-down on that sentiment during this month earnings call as a response to questions about anti-trust
investigations against the company that could seek to force a spin-off of its acquisitions
Zuckerberg noted that it was Facebook resources in areas like anti-spam, internationalization and ads that helped turn Instagram from a
sub-50 million user product to a billion-plus one today.
Some see Facebook as preemptively mounting a defense against antitrust action
Beyond rebranding, it working on making Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram Direct a unified interoperable and encrypted messaging
system where users can chat across the apps
Building them all on a centralized infrastructure could make Facebook tougher to break up.
Yet from another perspective, the rebranding
efforts feel ham-handed and egotistical
Facebook likely benefits from the fact that most people don&t actually know it owns Instagram and WhatsApp
A recent Pew study found only 29% of Americans correctly named the two as companies owned by Facebook.
Given Facebook rash of data security,
developer platform, election interference and ongoing privacy scandals, it probably better off if people think they can escape the toxicity
The acquisitions effectively acted as a brand lifeboat for Facebook.
Now it seems Facebook is happy to burn down some of the credibility of
its younger apps if it builds up the central company
Autonomy at the acquired companies has seemed to wane since Facebook installed loyal lieutenants like Adam Mosseri and Will Cathcart to run
Instagram and WhatsApp, respectively.
The big problem for Facebook, beyond government regulation? If current/potential talent view Facebook
as choking the potential of its subsidiaries, top workers might be hesitant to join or stay at the family of social networks.
