The head of meta world affairs was kicked out this week saying the metaverse is still in the future. Shortly after Disney, once the representative of this brave new virtual world, abandoned its own plans.
Former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who joined Meta in 2018, held a meeting via Meta’s Horizon Workrooms with a number of press who attended via Meta Quest headsets sent to them. . For clarity, leg was not in it.
The avatar, created for the Meta executive, sat at a virtual wooden table wearing a virtual blue blazer and white collared shirt and, according to one report, looked like the man himself.
“We’re going to stick with it,” Clegg said of the Metaverse, “because we believe this stuff will be at the heart of new computing platforms.”
“But it will take some time,” he added.
Confirmation that Meta is still behind this project isn’t a big surprise considering the company has spent billions of dollars creating this virtual space. We have created headsets, software and app delivery platforms.
Realizing that vision has taken longer than expected, and spending more to do so may seem at odds with Meta’s so-called “Year of Efficiency.” Cost savings have been achieved this year through measures such as laying off more than 20,000 staff.
Disney’s Metaverse business was designed to give viewers a more immersive experience – the next generation of storytelling – but this week a small division was cut amid 7,000 job cuts across the company. was announced to be deprecated and ended abruptly.
According to reports, Disney’s plans for the Metaverse were still unclear one year after the business unit was formed. Disney isn’t the only one. Last month, Microsoft reportedly put a bullet in its industrial Metaverse masterplan amid confirmed job cuts for a group of 10,000 people.
McKinsey estimates that from the beginning of 2021 to September of the following year, $177 billion was invested in the Metaverse by businesses. Gartner also predicts that by 2026, 25% of the world will spend an hour a day in this virtual world. Conversely, a Canalys analyst says he believes the Metaverse business project will be finished by 2025.
Clegg told reporters at a virtual conference this week that advertising and commerce are two sources of revenue for the Metaverse. He said sectors such as gaming and fitness are embracing virtual worlds, as are education and healthcare.
The problem is that shareholders may be getting impatient with this constant promise of tomorrow’s technology. As Bloomberg pointed out, three avatars’ mouths moved when a reporter asked a question.
“I just want to emphasize that we look back and think about the hardware we wear now. ‘Well, remember when you wore the Quest Pro?'” said Clegg. “We have always been very clear that we are working on this for the long haul. This is not going to happen overnight.”
The clock is ticking. ®
