Did the meta fail the metaverse?

When Facebook rebranded to Meta in 2021 and unveiled its boldest metaverse-focused offering yet, the world wasn’t stingy with expectations about what the future of virtual reality would look like.

And it’s not for nothing that the world’s largest social network has entered the realm of body and soul, using its main event to do the best marketing possible to showcase its offerings.

We were presented with several novelties that this project will bring to innovation; real-time integration of the virtual world with the physical, the creation and full customization of our avatars and scenarios, and the ability to use virtual spaces to integrate our work and learning environment, etc.

And with the marketing of the event, the financial market did not take long to start its speculations. At first it seemed promising, but with the slow development of all applications, the high prices of VR glasses, and the huge costs of maintaining the project, everything has changed.

The question is, how did it happen? Why didn’t such a costly investment turn into what was proposed? And most importantly, is there still hope for Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse?

The beginning of a dream…

Facebook started its journey as a mass social network in 2006, where it has already gained more than six million users, having undergone several transformations over the years, introducing various applications that can now be seen in all mass social networks.

But the backstage of this social network has never been quiet, as can be seen from the film The Social Network showing how it was created and the dramatic case between Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, the founders of Facebook, who get into a legal battle over the company’s assets.

Zuckerberg has always had maximum power at the head of big tech, even suppressing the powers of Facebook’s board of directors, many of whose decisions were discussed at the boards of directors but not approved by the CEO, which hit the founder’s image hard.

In 2014, when he saw an Oculus Rift demo from Oculus VR, now Reality Lab, he was fascinated by the idea. Virtual reality with countless possibilities for social and economic interactions in addition to the creative freedom of users to explore at any time.

He was convinced it was the right technology to invest in, and that same year he announced the purchase of Oculus for $2 billion. The purchase generated a lot of news around the world, creating a strong economic appeal for the virtual reality field, generating various expectations in the field, and opening up a number of investments, research and development in the field.

However, some investors and members of Facebook’s board of directors were not very happy with the purchase, believing that it would be too much of a risk for the company if it left its product line.

Also because in 2013 the company already took risks and failed in partnering with HTC to create the HTC First smartphone. Which was discontinued because it suffered from low subsidies and because it was far inferior to competitors at the time.

But with Zuckerberg central to the decision-making, this created a possible fear of a confrontation with the CEO, causing no one to oppose the purchase. This near-absolute power will prove to be one of the main features of the current problem facing the company.

Everything went wrong…

Between 2014 and 2020, the virtual reality industry has moved over $60 billion around the world. It is important to note that even though the VR space is making such profits, it still does not reach a large number of users and most of its applications are still focused on the gaming and entertainment industry.

Therefore, the performance of companies focusing on VR is not even comparable to companies dealing with other technologies. This is all due to the high cost of VR headsets around the world, the convenience that other technologies provide, and the public’s low interest in owning the product.

But none of that stopped Zuckerberg from continuing his plans to dominate the virtual reality space. And it’s in October 2021, with hugely hyped merchandising and unrealistic demos, that the now Meta CEO is unveiling his own Horizon metaverse, which has proposals to be a space for creativity, socialization, and sharing experiences.

In the weeks that followed, Meta got momentarily caught up in the hype surrounding its releases. But with the arrival of Horizon, extremely bad compared to what was presented, and the US government’s antitrust lawsuit against the company in December, it caused big tech stocks to crash.

The value, which topped one trillion dollars, dropped to $700 billion the following month.

That hasn’t stopped Zuckerberg from giving over $13 billion to Reality Lab, a decision widely criticized by many inside and outside of Meta. And the investment turned out to be not so big, because a year after the announcement, the expectations of 500 thousand users were not reached, without even exceeding the mark of 200 thousand.

The company continues to spend billions of dollars every month to maintain its metaverse. And with such high costs, Meta implemented a complex cost cut that entailed freezing five thousand hiring processes and laying off more than 20 thousand employees.

And given the latent lack of interest from the public, Disney’s recent exit from the Metaverse market, and mainly the growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI) research and development around the world, Meta seems to finally realize its investment mistakes. done in the last two years.

New Horizons

A giant company like Meta can’t help but be wrong about its size. The technology market has already shown us other great examples of this; Microsoft with its Windows 8, Google with its Google Glass, Samsung with its Galaxy Note 7, and Amazon with its Fire Phone are just a few of the big technology failures.

Mark Zuckerberg has accumulated years of notoriety by making everyone stop to hear what plans the billionaire has to offer. And these recent spotlights have erased his image as a visionary, creating yet another image of an authoritarian and utopian CEO.

But it is noticeable that he is giving up his expensive dreams to start new investments. He recently announced Meta’s entry into the AI ​​race, stating that his company has an “unprecedented” opportunity to invest in the AI ​​race, which has come too late.

If Zuckerberg wants to update his image and company image, he will need to cut back on his investments in bloated merchandising, invest more in listening to the company’s board of directors, and better understand the market constraints that may work in the future.

Fonte: Meta Platforms, Reality Labs, What’s wrong with the Facebook phone?, SuperData 2020 review, SuperData 2019 review, SuperData 2018 review, SuperData 2017 review, Connect 2021