Meta's Metaverse

Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was among the first tech entrepreneurs to show excessive interest in the metaverse and web3, so much so that he rebranded his entire company to Meta. Undoubtedly, this is a huge wager, but it is a testament to Zuckerberg’s agile mindset in the face of adversity as well as his strong conviction in the success of their newest venture.??

Accomplishments?

Meta is the parent company of Facebook, the most-used social media platform worldwide, and they have extended their empire by acquiring both WhatsApp and Instagram to become the single largest social networking company in the world. Needless to say, this fact has catapulted Meta’s market value as they would become the platform of choice for advertisers due to their extensive reach.??

Most of Meta’s revenue stems from its unparalleled tracking technologies that could provide advertisers with a detailed account of the users, making it a lot easier to generate targeted ads. This might sound like a crude practice, but it is not necessarily the case, after all, it’s this technology that allows mass producers to gauge demand so that they can meet it with appropriate supply, it also helps the user find products that grab their interest rather than clutter their feed with useless advertisements.??

?As Meta’s revenue model relies on data and ads, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency dealt a critical blow to Meta’s quarterly reports. Indeed, Zuckerberg estimated the decrease in quarterly revenue to be a staggering USD $10 Billion. To add insult to injury, Google has recently announced that they tend to follow suit and revealed their 2-year plan to reduce intrusive tracking, and this decision is expected to further weigh down Meta’s revenue.??

In the face of these challenges, Zuckerberg was forced to devise a new strategy for revenue generation, and he set his sights on the metaverse, a relatively untapped field. So far, Meta has poured over USD $10 Billion towards conquering the metaverse, and they are likely to double or even triple that amount.

Back in 2014, Meta acquired Oculus, one of the leaders in Virtual Reality (VR) development. In theory, this alliance should give Meta the edge needed to make breakthroughs in the metaverse, but the reality is relatively far from it. In fact, the Meta Quest Pro, the company’s latest VR set, has hit the market, and the reception has been underwhelming. The device has been criticized for its lack of innovation to justify the USD $1,499 price tag attached to it as many have pointed out that the user experience doesn’t differ much from using significantly less expensive sets. Further, Meta’s announcements about the development process have been met with mixed feelings at best. Indeed, the current popular opinion is that for all the resources that have been thrown into the platform, Meta has little to show for it. So far, every announcement made public by Zuckerberg has been met with a wall of ridicule, and some even went as far as to consider this whole endeavor a joke. For instance, in a recent reveal, Zuckerberg announced that they had finally made a breakthrough and that characters can now have legs in their metaverse. The crowds were understandably confounded, for this technology had existed for decades.??

Challenges?

Meta has had a presence in the real and online world for the past 18 years, so it is only natural that they got mixed up in a few controversies. Indeed, Meta has attempted to release a few products that failed to hit the mark. Think back to the Facebook phone, Facebook Home, and Messenger, all these products were met with resistance, and the company received full backlash from both competitors and their audience.?

Also, this isn’t their first move into web3 and blockchain, they’ve released a coin whose final name was Diem, but it was shut down due to poor community reception as well as lawmakers being concerned about poor moderation leading to widespread money laundering schemes.??

Conclusion?

All in all, Meta’s efforts shouldn’t be dismissed so quickly, especially when we stop to consider the facts; Meta is one of the largest companies in the world, meaning that it has near-limitless resources. Further, Meta has been forced into this switch at a poor timing with the recession that both the stock and the crypto markets are facing. The future of Meta’s Metaverse might yet shine bright, and they are definitely well suited to succeed.??