Mark Zuckerberg
The Meta boss was surprisingly seen virtually at the SXSW tech fair.
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Bild: © 2021 Bloomberg Finance LP
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Austin, Texas He was the surprise virtual guest at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas: Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook — today’s meta — announced his attendance just a day in advance. On Tuesday he was invited to the music and tech festival in the large ballroom. It is one of Zuckerberg’s few public appearances.
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Black investor Daymond John, known in the US from the Shark Tank television show, is sitting on the stage. This time, John is not interviewing a promising startup, but one of the most successful but also most controversial tech founders from Silicon Valley, who wants to turn his social network into the largest Metaverse company in the world. And John’s questions are much gentler than those he asks young founders on TV.
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In a light blue and beige living room that could also be a hotel room, Zuckerberg sits in front of the camera in a dark sweater and tells how he wants to improve the world with the Metaverse: he calls Instagram and Whatsapp great “social services”. But the real breakthrough for mankind will come with the Metaverse trying to convince audiences.
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Zuckerberg says phrases like, “We are the company that helps people connect. That’s why we wake up every day and work on it.” He raves about how a 25-year-old black artist from Brooklyn is showing her art there, how old people can dance there again. And how diverse his avatars will be. He raves about NFTs, virtual clothing for avatars and holograms.
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What a contrast not only to the reality of many days on Meta’s platforms today – but also to an appearance at the same place the day before. There was Frances Haugen on stage, the whistleblower who accused Facebook of pushing extreme content for the sake of profit and thus endangering young people in particular. The former Facebook employee received standing applause.
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There is a lot of criticism of Meta and Zuckerberg at SXSW
Zuckerberg’s virtual appearance was all the more surprising. In any case, a checkered history connects him with SXSW. In 2008, the then 23-year-old CEO was interviewed in Austin. But the conversation with journalist Sarah Lacy quickly slipped away. Zuckerberg was perceived by many viewers as overbearing.
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To date, the relationship between the audience at SXSW and Mark Zuckerberg has improved little. In his keynote speech, the former Nintendo boss in the USA, Reggie Fils-Aimé, said the sentence: “Facebook is not an innovative company.” He earned loud applause from the viewers.
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South by Southwest audience
Zuckerberg has a difficult time among the participants.
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Image: Reuters
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Professor Ben Grosser from the University of Illinois was given an entire room at SXSW for his video project “Order of Magnitude”: In the 47-minute film, Grosser edited together video snippets from performances by Zuckerberg, in which he repeatedly used the words “more”, ” larger” and used large numbers.
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Grosser explained in his presentation that Zuckerberg made unconditional growth the top priority more than any other founder from Silicon Valley – regardless of the consequences. At SXSW, Grosser’s video runs in an endless loop.
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After all, the otherwise very reserved Zuckerberg also took a few questions from the audience after the conversation with the shark tank investor. In response to a question, he concedes that a truly robust infrastructure for a truly realistic virtual world with realistic avatars may take a few more years – maybe a decade.
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When asked what he’s up to that game specialists like Epicgames and Roblex aren’t already doing, he says, “I don’t think the Metaverse is all about games.” It’s about communication: Meta will develop glasses in which you can make “real” eye contact, better than with Zoom. “Connecting people” – that is the noble goal of Meta.
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A goal that whistleblower Haugen has her doubts about. She warned of the Metaverse, which will alienate people even further if friendships only take place in the virtual world. “One can only wish people that they never have a serious problem where they have to sleep on their friends’ real couches.”
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