Meta still believe in the idea of metaverses

In the technology industry sector, 2022 turned out to be quite a difficult year, as well as for the cryptocurrency market. Meta is having a particularly hard time with these tough times. Since the name change from Facebook to Meta, the stock has already sank 64% and may continue to decline in the future.

If at the beginning of 2022 the shares were traded at a price tag of $338, then at the time of writing, the cost of one Meta security is $114.5.

The CTO of Reality Labs, a division of Meta that develops Web3 technology and metaverses, commented on the results of 2022. According to Andrew Bosworth, the team was ready for the challenge:

Meta started 2022 with a new name and a new vision for the future, and our job at Reality Labs is to bring that vision to life. We never thought it would be easy or simple, but this year turned out to be even more difficult than we expected.

Economic troubles around the world, combined with pressure on Meta's core business, have created the perfect storm of skepticism about the investments we're making.

Mark Zuckerberg is confident that the world in the future will completely switch to the metaverse format. To show his commitment to Web3 technology and his goals, he decided to rename Facebook to Meta.

In addition, the company created a division called Reality Labs, which is developing its own metaverse. RL has experience developing interesting technologies. In 2016, it was they who created the Oculus Rift VR VR helmet, which set many standards for all subsequent competitors.

Meta's stock has slumped a lot this year. The loss of shares was about 65%. Such changes in the value of securities are explained by the company's poor results in 2022. In October, it became known that Reality Labs lost over $3,600,000,000 in Q3 2022. For comparison, for the same Q3 in 2021, RL lost $2,630,000,000..

Andrew Bosworth also noted that about 20% of Meta's total investments went to funding Reality Labs, while the remaining 80% went to core activities, including Meta, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.

Bosworth explained that this significant funding is important if the company is to be at the forefront of new technologies and to be highly competitive in the Web3 and Metaverse space.

Representatives of the Open Metaverse Alliance, which includes The Sandbox, Upland and other projects, say they want to prevent Meta from determining what the future of the Internet will be. Zuckerberg, in turn, has repeatedly stated that he sees the development of the metaverse in his company exclusively as a long-term project.

According to him, losses exceeding $3,600,000,000, mass layoffs of employees, or anything else will not interfere with development. Recall that earlier, as a result of large losses, Meta released more than 11,000 people from their duties to the organization who lost their jobs.

The term “metaverse” is rather vague. People think the metaverse is the next iteration of the internet. A world where people can interact not through pictures and auditions, but through a meeting in a virtual space.

To do this, they will use 3D avatars that can be changed by putting on them NFT items purchased in various marketplaces. Some world-famous clothing brands have already begun to make their clothes in the form of NFT tokens, and therefore customization in the metaverse promises to be interesting.

Nike Virtual Shoes

The metaverse will have many societies with conventional video games and MMOs, however, companies that are not connected with the world of computer games are interested in the development of Web3 technologies.

Meta is so committed to improving the metaverse that it wants to dominate that market. The consequences of their success can be negative, because in this case, Meta will begin to dictate its own rules and will develop a monopoly in the market, leaving no chance for competitors.

The Open Metaverse Alliance is just fighting to ensure that Meta cannot single-handedly capture the metaverse market and want the market to be saturated with various developers and be able to dynamically change, and not adapt to the wishes of Zuckerberg.

Meta has also started rolling out NFT token integration to Instagram, which has over 2,000,000,000 monthly users.

As for the fight between Meta and the Open Metaverse Alliance, here you can see that Zuckerberg's company is not doing very well. The falling share price indicates the negative mood of investors who do not share the interests of Mark and want the social networks Facebook and Instagram, along with the WhatsApp messenger, to continue developing in the direction in which they were moving before.

However, Andrew Bosworth believes that falling stocks are not big problems, but temporary tests:

In boom times, it's easy to make large and ambitious investments in what's next. But when economic conditions change, 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 the most out of it.

These are moments that really test people's faith in the future.