Despite the strong pushback from customers and the stock market this year, Facebook parent Meta Platforms remains confident in the future of the metaverse.
Key Details
- Meta believes in the future of the metaverse and will continue to invest 20% of its spending in the division behind its metaverse efforts—Reality Labs.
- The company said most investments go into its core apps, including Instagram and Facebook, but Meta refuses to give up on the metaverse.
- Regardless of setbacks and criticism the company has faced on its journey to the metaverse, it will continue to invest money with hopes of it taking off in the future.
Why it’s news
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is betting everything on the idea of the metaverse, and it isn’t giving up yet.
Last October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company would change its name to Meta Platforms and be a “metaverse company.”
His ideas were focused on the idea that Facebook (now Meta Platforms) would be one step ahead of the competition by creating this virtual reality world first and that customers would flock to the futuristic world so far, that hasn’t been the case, but the company refuses to give up.
The company recently released a blog post titled “Why we still believe in the future,” detailing that it believes in the future of the metaverse and is not giving up yet.
The post details that Meta will continue to invest 20% of its spending in Reality Labs, the division behind its metaverse efforts, while still investing the majority of money into its loved platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
“It’s a level of investment we believe makes sense for a company committed to staying at the leading edge of one of the most competitive and innovative industries on earth,” chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth says in the post.
Meta began receiving criticism after consulting CTO of Meta’s virtual-reality initiative, John Carmack, who left the company recently. Upon his leaving, Carmack wrote a note detailing he felt weary of the fight with Meta and stated, “I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it.”
Meta has faced many roadblocks as it continues in the fight for the Metaverse, but it is not backing down as the company continues to bet on the future.
“During boom times, it’s easy to make big, ambitious investments in what’s coming next,” says Bosworth. “But when economic conditions turn, it’s just as easy to turn the other way: cut back on your ambitions, stick to what’s safest and most profitable today, and squeeze as much as you can from it.”