The metaverse is the future of the internet. Or, at least, according to Mark Zuckerberg. According ” Bloomberg“, the founder of Facebook, who changed the name of his company to Meta to show his determination to create a new virtual world, told investors that his plans will see his tech empire lose “significant” sums over the next five years. coming years.
Clearly, for the metaverse – of which we don’t even have the basics – to crystallize, the company will have to invest considerable sums. With, moreover, a sunk cost in the medium term. In 2021 alone, the virtual world “works” will cost the company more than $10 billion in losses.
In the first quarter of 2022 alone, the all-new flagship line of business lost another $3 billion. This situation is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
Currently, the company is focused on developing virtual reality and augmented reality viewers, technologies that should be critical to the company’s success in creating truly immersive metaverse experiences.
According to “The Information”, the company is currently developing four such devices which should be released by the end of 2024. In addition, the company intends to make them accessible to as many users as possible.
Zuckerberg told investors, “We want to make hardware as affordable as possible for everyone and grow the digital economy. »
Less money, fewer workers
Meta announced a few weeks ago that it intended to reduce some of its investments in response to the losses in the metaverse. CTO Andrew Bosworth informed employees that “the (virtual reality) division could no longer afford to complete some projects and had to postpone others. »
Recall that the technology company lost almost half of its stock market value at the start of 2022 after informing investors that Facebook was starting to lose users for the first time in its history.
In addition, the company intends to slow down the pace of hiring. In 2021, 13,000 new employees were added to the Virtual Reality division. Six thousand more were added during the first quarter of this year.
However, Zuckerberg is adamant: the future of the company depends on the development of the metaverse. However, declining profits force a reassessment of building a new virtual world which, to date and at least for the foreseeable future, will continue to generate billions in losses.
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