2022 has been quite a stormy year on the digital planet. Silicon Valley layoffs, bankruptcy, closing services, failed launches… Here are our flops for 2022.
Twitter run by Elon Musk
One of the soap operas of the last few months is, of course, Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. We are at the end of October and the founder of Tesla and Space X ends up paying out the 44 billion dollars initially promised after many vicissitudes. And since then, the latter has multiplied the thunderous and rarely coherent announcements. Paid subscription and certifications, reactivation of hundreds of banned accounts including that of former US President Donald Trump.
Elon Musk also stood out for his brutal personnel management and thousands of layoffs. Last episode: the billionaire has announced that he will leave the head of the network as soon as he has found someone “crazy enough” to replace him.
The Facebook Metaverse
On the podium of the flops there is also the famous Facebook metaverse, one of Mark Zuckerberg’s great announcements, just a year ago. “I believe the metaverse is the next chapter of the internet”, he launched at the time. Result: the idea is not to be thrown away but today nobody really knows how to precisely define what the metaverse is… Virtual or augmented reality? In a video game or through a virtual reality headset?
In reality, the concept is simply difficult to accept, the public finds it hard to find interest in putting their noses into it, despite the astronomical sums paid by the parent company of Facebook. Meta, which also had to lay off 11,000 employees; layoffs like on Twitter, Snap, Amazon or Microsoft, clearly making 2022 a very bad year for Silicon Valley.
Cryptocurrencies in free fall
The price of bitcoin has plummeted. A year ago it was worth more than 41,000 euros and today just over 15,000. One of the biggest trading platforms, FTX has gone bankrupt.
Streaming services rock it
A little closer to our daily uses, finally, the streaming boat is also rocking. Netflix saved its boat despite a decline in subscriber numbers. Starzplay has closed up shop. HBO Max is in bad shape in the US. And in France. the future of the Salto platform, which brought together the public service, TF1 and M6, is today uncertain as the two private groups want to give up. An adventure that lasted just two years in total…
