Facebook rebrands despite calls for breakup of services

• Analysts say timing of announcing the new logo holds importance in the backdrop of calls to break social network’s services into various pieces.
• Facebook has been facing criticism for the past two years due to constant scandals.
• Company representative says this brand change is a way to better communicate the ownership structure to the people and businesses.

(Karachi) Facebook has introduced a new brand which retains the name of the social organization, it revealed in a blog post on Tuesday. The new logo features Facebook in capital letters with custom typography. The company said the new brand will appear on Instagram, Whattsapp and other services.

Facebook’s Chief Marketing Officer Antonio Lucio wrote in a blog post, “Today, we’re updating our company branding to be clearer about the products that come from Facebook.”

He added, “We’re introducing a new company logo and further distinguishing the Facebook Company from Facebook app, which will keep its own branding.”

"This brand change is a way to better communicate our ownership structure to the people and businesses, who use our services to connect, share, build community and grow their audiences," Lucio wrote.

Meanwhile, analysts say that the timing of the announcing the new logo holds importance as politicians and consumer advocates have urged the government to break the social network’s services into various pieces.

Facebook's brand has been battered over the past two years by constant scandals, while WhatsApp and Instagram have remained relatively crisis-free. For years, the $535 billion company has been content to keep its various apps at arm's length, operating as independent team with significant autonomy.

But more recently, Facebook has been attempting to exert more centralized control, sometimes provoking tensions and concerns among employees.

Google made a similar move in 2015, but called its new parent company Alphabet and restructured its company to make Google a subsidiary.