It is important to note that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 billion metaverse experience was initially met with mild disapproval after Meta’s Horizon Worlds VR platform was released.
In 2021, Facebook Inc announced its first major rebrand by changing its name to Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META). This was to reflect the company’s growing ambition of operating beyond social media. It was reported that the company seeks to create a metaverse to connect online social experiences with the physical world. As part of its vision, the company’s head of metaverse products, Vishal Shah disclosed that they seek to enable as many creators as possible to build businesses in the metaverse.
“There will be many different kinds of creators in the metaverse. Creators who make digital objects, creators who offer services and experiences, and those who build entire worlds like game creators do today,” he said.
It is important to note that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s $100 billion metaverse experience was initially met with mild disapproval after Meta’s Horizon Worlds VR platform was released. Interestingly, Zuckerberg’s avatar was said to have fallen prey to internet memes.
Meta has been recording an unimpressive growth rate with its fourth-quarter earnings disappointing Wall Street and sending its stock down the price curve. Its third-quarter revenue in 2022 also saw a decline as it loses $600B in market cap in 2022.
In a recent comment, the CEO of crypto exchange FTX Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) dug into the rebranding and its possible effect on the company.
According to him, the growth of Facebook was never affected by the arrival of new competitors like TikTok. He believes that the company stopped growing because it simply had no more room to grow. While the meta rebranding was a strategic approach to rely on distraction to improve its reputation, it will also strengthen its narrative for “generating high income upon its success.” SBF also lauded the company’s decision to invest $10 billion per year into the metaverse. Considering that Facebook is the largest social media network in the world, SBS suggested at the company should start building Social Media 3.0. Meta recently announced that its NFT collectible support is available for all Facebook and Instagram users in the US. According to the report, the feature supports collectibles from Ethereum, Polygon, and some selected blockchains.
Ben Thompson, a veteran tech analyst had previously observed Facebook’s growth in the fourth quarter of 2021 and linked it to its mode of business.
“The problem for Meta is that its business isn’t based on surfacing content from your friends; it’s based on engagement and serving ads, which means any service that occupies your time and attention – and TikTok occupies a lot of it – is a fundamental threat,” he said.
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