Meta’s Still Building the Metaverse Despite $47 Billion Loss

One of the most striking changes that came to the tech landscape so far this decade has been Facebook’s sudden name change to Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that the company was pivoting its focus from social media to the metaverse, but this hasn’t really panned out in subsequent years.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Meta has lost an estimated $47 billion on this project since it was first launched in 2019. In spite of the fact that this is the case, Mark Zuckerberg is pressing on with the plan, even though AI has clearly dominated the industry and provides more realistic value for shareholders.

When speaking to investors, Zuckerberg denied that the company was abandoning the metaverse for AI. Instead, the company will be focusing on both niches simultaneously with all things having been considered and taken into account.

However, it bears mentioning that any updates the company has released regarding the Metaverse has been met with widespread ridicule. When the Zuckerberg published an image of his metaverse avatar in front of the Eiffel tower, users noted how low quality the graphics were, and that the avatar was incomplete.

According to Bloomberg, the designer that came up with Zuckerberg’s metaverse likeness experimented with 40 different versions before settling on the one that people saw. Despite the immense effort that was put into the avatar, it still didn’t impress anyone, which seems to suggest that the company is wasting its resources on a failed endeavor.

Nicola Mendelsohn, the head of Meta’s global business group, in a recent interview with CNBC, said that the company’s vision for the metaverse will take at least a decade to pay off. Until that time, Meta will likely continue to hemorrhage money, although she acknowledged that they were also investing in AI.

Whenever the final version of the metaverse gets released, it will either defy all expectations or sink the company once and for all. Zuckerberg seems to strongly believe in the idea, but shareholders might soon start to take issue with his myopic approach to the expensive project.

Photo: Digital Information World – AIgen

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