As June ended, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed an ambitious new initiative to his employees. The company’s fate would go far beyond its present building connected social apps and hardware to help them. Instead, he said, the Facebook change would seek to create a maximalist, interconnected set of ventures straight out of sci-fi — known to the world as the metaverse.
The Facebook new name focused on yields for creators, commerce, communities, and virtual reality would increasingly function to learn this notion, he said in a remote oration to employees.
“What I think is most interesting is how these themes will come together into a bigger idea,” Mark Zuckerberg declared. “Our overarching goal across all of these initiatives is to assist bringing the metaverse to life.”
What is Metaverse?
There are several sorts of questions one could ask about this metaverse strategy. The foremost and most basic is: What is a metaverse, and what will Facebook rebrand version look like?
That question was answered, at least partially, on 28th October. CEO Mark Zuckerberg painted scenery of the metaverse as a neat, well-lit virtual world, entered with augmented reality hardware and virtual at first and more advanced body sensors later on. People can play virtual games, observe virtual shows, shop for virtual goods, manage virtual art, party with others’ virtual avatars and observe virtual job meetings.
This concept of an immersive digital kingdom is not new — it was drawn out almost 30 years ago by the science fiction writer Neal Stephenson — but Mr Zuckerberg is betting Facebook’s future on the wager that it will become natural, saying that the metaverse will be a “successor to the mobile internet.”
Another apparent question you could ask is, “Will this really work?” It’s impossible to say for sure, of course. However, I’m skeptical that Facebook — a lumbering bureaucracy whose most significant breakthroughs in the past decade have come mainly by buying competing apps or copying their features rather than developing its ideas internally — will create an immersive digital universe that people want to spend time in.”
But it would be unfair to say Facebook's metaverse off as just a strategic ploy or marketing gimmick meant to provide the company more influence over its competitors. (Though it is both.)
If it works, Mr. Mark's metaverse will guide in a new era of power — one that would extend Facebook's impact to entirely new kinds of culture, transmission, and commerce. And if it doesn't, it will be recognised as a frantic, costly attempt.
Regardless, this isn't a pridefulness stunt for Mr. Zuckerberg. In the metaverse, he has discovered what may be a getaway vent — a way to eject himself from Facebook's chaotic, jittery present and break ground on a new, fresh frontier. No surprise, he looks so happy.
For more insights into the digital transformation of Facebook and Metaverse, stay tuned at Team CloudSource.