Update on the Metaverse

Ever since Facebook’s change to Meta, the stock price has been continuously declining, and the price has been at its lowest since 2016. Meta recently updated Horizon Worlds with the addition of each avatar having legs in the game, a feature already implemented in other VR metaverses such as VR Chat. Although eight months ago, the idea of the metaverse was constantly pushed and seen as the future of technology, now the metaverse is almost completely irrelevant.

Although the push for developing the metaverse has been costly for Meta, Zuckerberg has plans for long-term development, believing that technology for a properly accessible metaverse will be established by 2030. The company is constantly losing money and value due to his trust in the vision of the metaverse.

Facebook is still the third most visited website right below Google and YouTube. Instagram is still one of the most popular social media sites in the world. Meta is not going to become completely irrelevant anytime soon as Meta has a solid and stable presence among users. However, many criticize how impractical the metaverse is. According to a New York Times article interviewing one of Meta’s employees, a meeting inside Horizonal Workrooms had so many technical problems that they used Zoom instead to communicate.

Even though many mock Horizon Worlds for not being novel or not groundbreaking as promised, it may have been one of the only methods for Facebook to maintain its position as one of the big tech companies. Other companies such as Apple and Microsoft not only have popular software but also profitable hardware. Apple builds an experience with all of its devices. For example, iCloud allows photos and files to be shared smoothly among many Apple devices quickly and conveniently. Likewise, Microsoft has OneDrive that has a similar function. All Apple devices interact with each other and create a network, providing the user with a smooth experience. Meta’s biggest software are Instagram and Facebook. Although they own Oculus, the market for VR headsets is much smaller than the market for laptops. Without investing in the ‘future’ of technology, the metaverse, Meta could fall into irrelevance.

Meta’s push and development of metaverse-related technology and software such as its acquisition of Oculus and Horizon Worlds was heavily criticized for it being marketed as a novel idea even though similar projects have been created many times before. Zuckerberg’s vision ignores the short-term losses and hopes to profit in the long term by establishing a strong grasp into the metaverse market until it becomes more practical on a day-to-day basis.