These are the first results that the American group has published since its name change at the end of October. Mark Zuckerberg then announced that he wanted to focus on the “metaverse”, considered in Silicon Valley as the future of the Internet: a parallel universe where the public will use augmented or virtual reality glasses to interact, work or have fun.
But its construction translates for the moment into tens of billions of dollars of investments in the Facebook Reality Labs branch.
Adam Mosseri, the boss of Instagram, announced on Wednesday that users can now create their avatar intended to serve as an identity in the metaverse. “It’s a virtual representation of who you are, more dynamic than a profile. You will have clothes that you can wear (…) and also money, and any digital good that you own“, he clarified in a video.
The goal is for people to be able totake this identity and these assets wherever they go in the metaverse, on apps made by Meta or by any company in the world“, he added.
“There are a lot of uncertainties surrounding these investments”, Ms. Williamson noted.
“Meta will probably test ads and e-commerce in its metaverse apps this year, but these efforts will be very experimental and are unlikely to lead to much revenue in the short term.”
Investor confidence is also damaged by themajor failure of Diem, the digital currency project launched with great fanfare in 2019 to offer a new method of payment outside traditional banking circuits. The independent entity that took care of it announced on Monday that it was going to dismantle for lack of having been able to convince the regulators.
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