Mark Zuckerberg Says: Virtual Reality the Next Big Thing for Facebook
variety.com
variety.com
It makes sense after all: 75% of Facebook's money comes from a platform (smartphones) that was nonexistent 10 years ago. In 10 years it is possible that VR will represent 75% or more of the revenues of Facebook — they'd be fools not to invest in it early.
After that, it's really up to developers to make compelling applications for VR. Facebook will have to start down that road themselves to demonstrate the potential market for it, obviously.
On one hand, I can see the value in VR in a theoretical sense. I grew up with quite a bit of fascination over things like Star-Trek-esque holodecks and Matrix-style simulated universes, and this part of me thinks Facebook's smart for wanting to be on the leading edge of such a world where people can share their current experiences and others can also experience them in a similar manner.
On the other hand, I can't get the images of previous VR fads out of my head, especially that of the last decade, dominated by projects like Second Life and Project Wonderland, and thus can't shake the feeling that most people are going to picture a VRified Facebook as little more than some nerd toy.