Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t stop talking about the metaverse. The creator of the social network Facebook, which after uncovering a series of internal documents is going through the worst reputational crisis in its history, has even decided to change the name of his company to Meta, in reference to this new project. But what will the metaverse really be? In the words of Zuckerberg and other specialists, it will be an “immersive internet” experience, which we will be able to access through virtual reality and augmented reality, and which will also allow to integrate the internet in a more fluid and personalized way in all aspects of our lives.
“We have gone from text to photos and then to videos. But this is not the end of the road. The next medium will be even more immersive and will embody the internet while you live experiences ”, has sentenced Zuckerberg, who sees the metaverse as the next great step in communications technology. The explanations of the creator of Facebook illustrate the metaverse as a mixture of platform and parallel digital world “without limits”, where the internet and the human experience will converge.
Zuckerberg knows that few understand what he is proposing. The businessman acknowledges that the project “seems like science fiction” and that even he does not know how long it will take to consolidate. However, during the presentation of his new brand, he has hinted at some of the possibilities of the metaverse, such as participating in a concert on the other side of the world through virtual reality, bringing real-world objects to the internet through NFT, being present in a business meeting as a hologram or hyper-realistic avatar, write messages just by thinking about it, among others.
This new ecosystem will also have far-reaching economic derivatives. The company claims they are investing $ 150 million in teaching resources to help creators and developers “build skills, access technologies, and create opportunities in the metaverse.” On the other hand, they also seek to innovate in this field with Facebook Reality Labs, their research branch.
Vishal Shah, Head of Products at Meta, says that digital and physical items can be sold in the metaverse, which will be authenticated using NFT. The company has slipped that experiences in the metaverse could also be made profitable through subscriptions or advertisements. It should be noted that the company continues with its cryptocurrency project, which has changed its name from pound to diem, in which companies such as Uber and Spotify now also participate. On the other hand, it recently launched its cryptocurrency wallet, called Novi.
Zuckerberg assures that we will be able to access all these experiences through virtual reality glasses and smart glasses, glasses that will allow us to add “layers” to reality in order to interact with the internet and social networks. These layers would work in a similar way to the augmented reality filters that are already in some applications like Instagram or Pokémon Go, only they would be more interactive. In this sense, these glasses would become as common as computers and smartphones are now and would allow us to interact with applications in a deeper way.
The company will either subsidize these devices or sell them at cost so that more people can access the metaverse. It should be noted that Zuckerberg owns Oculus, one of the world leaders in the manufacture of glasses and virtual reality technology, and that recently Facebook made a collaboration with the Ray Ban glasses brand to create its first smart glasses, which have a camera and audio. incorporated and that allow interaction with the user’s social networks. Xiaomi, a Chinese phone company, also unveiled its first smart class prototype. On the other hand, he stressed that people will also be allowed to connect through computers or telephones.
Timeline of Facebook expansion
- 2012. Facebook buys Instagram, for $ 1 billion in cash and shares. That same year Facebook presented a takeover bid with which it raised 16,000 million. The share price left the company with a higher market capitalization than any other American company at the time, outperforming companies like Amazon, McDonald’s, Disney, or Kraft Foods.
- 2014. Facebook announced that it would buy the mobile messaging company WhatsApp for $ 19 billion in cash and shares. That same year, it acquired virtual reality company Oculus VR for $ 2.3 billion in shares and cash.
- 2018. Facebook ranked 76th on the Fortune 500 list of America’s Largest Companies by revenue. Most of these come from advertising. An analysis of the 2017 data found that the company earned $ 20.21 for each of its users through advertisements.
- 2020. In April 2020, Facebook announced a $ 5.7 billion deal with Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries to purchase approximately 10% of Jio Platforms, Reliance’s digital media and services entity. In May of that same year, the company announced that they had acquired Giphy for $ 400 million.
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