PALO ALTO, U.S. -- Facebook, the U.S. tech company known for its namesake social media app, is changing its name to Meta, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday, to reflect "the future that we want to help build."

With controversy swirling around the core business, after a series of leaks and whistleblower claims, Zuckerberg has sought to project a vision for the company that goes beyond traditional social media to encompass a buzzy new term, the "metaverse."

The metaverse is a hybrid world of online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. Facebook already owns the virtual reality business Oculus and is building out augmented reality games, virtual offices and interactive fitness programs.

"We have a new name that reflects the full breadth of what we do and the future that we want to help build," said Zuckerberg. "From now on, we're going to be metaverse first, not Facebook first."

The word "meta" comes from the Greek word meaning beyond, he added.

The names of the company's apps including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp will not change.

Beginning in the December quarter, the company will break down its financial reporting segments into two parts: the social media apps business and a nascent "Facebook Reality Labs" business that focuses on metaverse-related operations.

However, the company said its metaverse vision may take decades to achieve, since most of the technologies required are still in development.

"Building social apps will always be important for us, and there's a lot more to build. But increasingly, it's not all we do," Zuckerberg said. "In our DNA, we build technology to bring people together. The metaverse is the next frontier in connecting people, just like social networking was when we got started."