Facebook It was going through one of the worst reputational crises in its history. The distrust of regulators and users skyrocketed after a former engineer from the US. social networkFrances Haugen has leaked internal documents to the press proving that her board of directors turned a blind eye to the avalanche. disinformation and content that is harmful to mental health circulating on its platforms.
Mark Zuckerberg had a brilliant idea to leave the scandal behind. On October 28, 2021, the company was renamed Meta and turned its business into the so-called metaverse, a new immersive digital medium yet to be defined. Internet inside 3-dimensional.
Facebook set the pace for the tech industry. The promise that the future of the network passes virtual reality (RV) seduced big companies from all over the world and these companies continued to spend billions of euros to realize this earthly dream. science fiction. The key promise was to squeeze out as much income as possible from the emerging virtual economy by squeezing the parallel universe. Web3 (cryptocurrencies, blockchain And NFTs). Silicon Valley’s siren songs have captured the attention of everyone, from telemarketers to big investment funds, private design firms and artists.
Metaverse is falling, AI is rising
However, after a year and a half, all that initial enthusiasm seems to have faded. According to data from venture capital firm PitchBook compiled by Axios, global investment in the metaverse rose from nearly $2 billion in the first three months of 2022 to $586 million in the same period this year. Comparing this to the startup, analyst Antonio Ortiz explains, “It’s normal that what we’re seeing about the metaverse is pretty weak, and it’s slow and expensive to develop, because there isn’t yet the computational capacity to recreate very realistic virtual environments.” between Mobile Technology.
The division of Meta dedicated to improving the meta universe lost $10.2 billion in 2021 and $13.7 billion in 2022.
On the one hand, the decline in the popularity of VR, AI, the new fashion to which the industry is delivered. While the integration of chatbots capable of simulating a human conversation is being deployed under the promise of immediate productivity acceleration – an advertising formula yet to be tested – the investment in the metadata pool does not indicate an economic return until the medium or long term. Reality LabsMeta division dedicated to the development of RV products and services, and augmented reality (RA) reported operating losses of $10.2 billion in 2021 and $13.7 billion last year. This has led Meta shareholders to publicly condemn this strategy.
Disruptions in the industry
The other factor reducing this space is the economic turmoil the industry is going through and has so far laid off more than 166,000 people worldwide in 2023, more than last year altogether. After twenty years of easy access to money, inflation led many companies to adopt it. cuts personnel and investments.
The aforementioned letter from Zuckerberg would have announced a second round of 10,000 people. layoffs It accelerated after Meta shares dropped 64.45% in 2022, resulting in a 41% drop in annual profits. yes in february Microsoft At the end of March, he eliminated Disney’s part of the industrial metaverse.
huge investment
The Metaverse receded into the background, but did not disappear. A recent global survey by consulting firm KPMG found that 70% of CEOs of large companies will invest less than 5% in the metadata pool this year, but 60% believe it will be a “thriving business ecosystem” when mature. put it.
As such, the industry’s investment remains massive. That’s why Meta plans to launch next-gen earphones this year, which is an improvement of the platform. Horizon Worlds and updated version the quest, your VR glasses. And it will do so knowing that this year “long-term” investment (10 to 15 years) will result in even greater losses.
He’s not alone. Apple could start competing in this market in the coming months with a helmet it has been working on for seven years. nvidiaAs the seventh most valuable company in the world, it continues its claim for the construction of these areas. Microsoft is the company with the most patents technology Regarding Metaverse, he owns the popular virtual world. minecraft and trying to close the giant’s acquisition video game Activision Blizzard. “The Game” is the current greatest representation of what the metaverse could be, and this is why companies Epic Games The creator of Fortnite or Unity, and platforms like Roblox are among the top investors in this space. Others such as Samsung, Magic Leap, Adobe, Verizon, Intel, Snap, Baidu or LG also stand out in this race.
A study two weeks ago by analytics firm IDC indicated that sales of VR glasses fell 20.9% last year, but will skyrocket by 32% each year between 2023 and 2027. “From text to audio and video, technology has always been more immersive,” Ortiz says. “I wouldn’t leave the Metaverse to die.”