Mark Zuckerberg Just Buried His Metaverse Dreams

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the failure of Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse project and Meta's pivot towards AI as the new focus.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse Dreams

1. What were the key issues with Meta's Metaverse project?

• Meta's investors were increasingly concerned about the massive spending on the Metaverse project, with Reality Labs division recording nearly $24 billion in cumulative losses in 2021 and 2022.
• There was a lack of public excitement and adoption for the Metaverse, with the most popular virtual worlds like Decentraland and The Sandbox having very low daily active user numbers.
• The Metaverse was seen as a "soulless, legless, empty and barely functioning" digital environment that lacked practicality, purpose and fun for consumers.

2. How did Zuckerberg respond to the criticism and concerns around the Metaverse?

• Zuckerberg insisted on doubling down on the Metaverse project, stating that the losses would continue to grow significantly in 2023.
• However, this led to a sharp drop in Meta's stock price, which has only recovered due to the company's cost-cutting measures and branding 2023 as a "year of efficiency".

3. What does the article suggest about the future of Meta's Metaverse plans?

• The article suggests that Zuckerberg has effectively put his Metaverse dreams on ice, without any formal announcement or admission of failure.
• The company is now pivoting towards AI as the new focus, likely as a PR move to stay relevant and distract from the Metaverse's failure.

[02] Meta's Pivot to AI

1. What are the key points about Meta's shift towards AI?

• Meta has debuted its own large language model called LLaMA, but details about its capabilities and performance are unclear.
• The company is looking to integrate AI into various products and services, likely to improve ad targeting and content moderation, though the article suggests this could be disastrous given Meta's history.
• The article argues that Meta's AI push is more of a PR move to stay relevant and distract from the Metaverse's failure, rather than a genuine innovation effort.

2. What is the author's overall assessment of Meta's AI strategy?

• The author is skeptical about the usefulness and impact of Meta's AI efforts, stating that "very little" of value is likely to come from it.