The metaverse is the future, says Facebook, which since the end of October has been called Meta Platforms (Facebook) – Get the Class A report from Meta Platforms Inc..
For now, more questions than answers are emerging around this concept, of a virtual world in which we will interact through technological tools, such as virtual reality headsets, powered by technologies such as augmented reality.
But Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of the social media giant, believes it. The parent company of Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger is convinced that the company from Menlo Park, California, will soon reap the rewards of this bold bet.
In the meantime, the metaverse remains a source of losses and things are not about to change, has just warned Zuckerberg.
Facebook’s projects related to this immersive world will suffer “significant” financial losses over the next three to five years, the mogul told shareholders at the May 25 annual meeting. Holders should be prepared for additional metaverse-related losses.
Zuckerberg was answering an investor’s question about the return on investment for billions of dollars spent on metaverse-related projects.
“We want the hardware to be as affordable as possible for everyone and to make sure the digital economy grows,” Zuckerberg said.
For the first quarter, Reality Labs, the division that hosts Metaverse plans for Meta, reported a loss of $2.96 billion on revenue of $695 million. In 2021, Reality Labs posted a loss of $10.2 billion.
Scroll to continue
The Reality Labs division has some 10,000 employees and Facebook plans to double the workforce. But the company recently froze hiring amid growing concerns over ad revenue due to the economic downturn.
Meta bought virtual reality company Oculus in 2014 and rebranded its pioneering technology, changing the name of its flagship Oculus Quest headset to Meta Quest.
The Meta Quest headset sold 8.7 million units in 2021, indicating it has an audience for VR beyond the video game-centric base that Oculus was created to serve. the origin.
Facebook is planning its new VR headset this year, specially designed for work. Named Project Cambria, it was announced in October 2021 and promises to mirror users’ facial expressions in VR for a more realistic metaverse experience.
As TheStreet’s Colette Bennett wrote earlier this month, “selling her Project Cambria helmet will likely prove a much bigger challenge, especially since it will cost significantly more than the Meta Quest models. “.
It should cost over $800.
In addition to VR headsets, Facebook is looking to allow creators to monetize what they build in Horizon Worlds, their social metaverse platform for Quest VR headsets.
The company plans to take an overall cut of up to 47.5% on the sale of digital assets on Horizon Worlds.
This bundle charge is made up of a 30% hardware platform fee for sales made through the Meta Quest Store, where it sells apps and games for its VR headsets, and an additional 17.5% discount % as Horizon Platform Fee,
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()
{n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}
;if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
(function(){
fbq(‘init’, ‘135067773744716’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
var contentId = ‘ci02a22637000026bc’;
if (contentId !== ”) {
fbq(‘track’, ‘ViewContent’, {content_ids: [contentId], content_type: ‘product’});
}
})();
