Metaverse division revenue: $339M vs est. $613.1M
I kid, I kid.
It's not a blockbuster industry quite yet, but something's happening. If nothing else, releasing a bunch of digital VR content isn't untenable for a FAANG business.
I was always a huge skeptic of the Metaverse conceptually, but it was a moonshot project (and I'll be the first to admit, skeptics are often proven wrong with moonshots). The problem is you can never have a successful moonshot if it can't survive a few bad quarters.
I mean the actual Apollo program took 8 years to achieve its goal of getting humans on the moon.
0. https://qz.com/meta-layoffs-2023-jobs-metaverse-ai-185019657...
What's really wild is that the entire Apollo program cost ~$25 Billion in 1973 (of course est. $163 billion today) while Meta already spent $36 Billion on the Metaverse [0].
0. https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-lost-30-billion-on-meta...
* a cheaper device so that every household can have one (think printer)
* less friction to use (lighter, faster start, no need to setup guardian and tracking)
* longer battery
* better experiences to hangout with people
I think anyone could be convinced of that if they tried like, playing Catan in VR with strangers (it’s mind blowing)
Sure, all of that sounds cool, I guess... But I'm not convinced there is such a big market for all of this yet. VR seems to be in a similar spot PCs were back in the early 80s (except no/minimal business and enterprise application according to what FB is doing which makes the market even smaller)
If there is any market for VR, it will be cheap entertainment headsets. They are the only successful market that has been tapped with VR.
The Quest has sold upwards of 10 million units (nearing 20 million by some estimates), while commodity VR like PSVR and SteamVR has continued pushing forward where commercial headsets failed. Everyone who isn't competing directly with Meta is just building another Hololens.
“A narrative has developed that we’re somehow moving away from the metaverse, but I just want to say upfront that that’s inaccurate.” They are doing both, and AI and metaverse are connected, according to him