meta dream has no legs

“Legs coming soon!” This somewhat cryptic statement, among other things, was left behind this week at Facebook’s parent company’s annual event, Meta’s Connect. Understandably, people were confused.

In fact, a message tweeted from the Meta account simply announced that users’ digital avatars in the company’s virtual world would soon literally have legs. (Until now, only the body was floating.)

The leg in question is actually a little less silly than it looks. Meta wants its virtual game world Horizons to be more than just a curiosity, it’s a kind of 3D Facebook. – Chat with workers, friends, games and more.

How to make someone feel embodied or present in a virtual space is actually an interesting question, and one of the things you need is to feel connected to your virtual body. Hence the legs.

But when Zuckerberg touted his latest innovation at the event — a new, Meta Quest Pro headset, $1,499 (US), with improved fidelity and productivity apps from Microsoft and Accenture that bring productivity apps to Meta’s virtual reality. Partnerships with both – and not just. His one or two arched eyebrows around the finger appendages. There were blatant doubts about the company’s future.

Bloomberg argued that “Zuckerberg’s $1,499 headset is useless for Meta.”

TechCrunch also pointed out, “Mark Zuckerberg’s attempt to convince us VR is real is very acrimonious.”

A day later, Business Insider was more direct, saying only, “It’s time for Mark Zuckerberg to step down.”

Simply put, few people were impressed with Meta’s foray into virtual reality.

Criticism may be harsh, but it is true.

Zuckerberg’s plan to remake Facebook into Meta is just the wrong kind of moonshot. Misguided, arrogantly based, and too likely to fail.

What’s happening here is Zuckerberg desperately trying to find and own the next big thing. It’s not just a new product, it’s a new platform that becomes essential.

The metaverse as a concept makes some sense if that’s what you want. It is based on the idea of ​​a “digital twin”. It’s about building something like a mirrored digital version of the world and what’s in it. We then use technologies such as virtual reality headsets to “enter” that digital world and experience what is ostensibly real: connectivity, commerce, and entertainment.

As a billionaire tech CEO, I can see why this idea is so appealing.

Just as someone creates a digital social network where people do all sorts of things, they move their ideas into 3D and own new virtual spaces.

This is the logic of what some people call platform capitalism. The future of Big Tech is owning platforms rather than building individual products. others build a business

But for that to make sense, we have to believe and accept that people actually want to do what they’re doing on Facebook, but with virtual reality headsets instead. To do.

This is an idea that seems very misguided for many reasons.

The first is simple efficiency. Why bother putting on a virtual reality device and “walking” to a work meeting when you can do a Zoom call? And why would you want to “interact” with people at things like virtual raves and parties? VR poses obstacles for simple interactions that could be better accomplished in other ways.

The second is whether people really want it. Instagram’s appeal is obvious, but as a Facebook event hinted at, people are “celebrating the New Year” or “toasting marshmallows together” while sitting alone in a room wearing a VR headset. It’s not very clear what you want.

Where Zuckerberg and company seem to have miscalculated so badly is that no one seems to be asking the fundamental questions that are key to all business endeavors.

Instead, it feels like Facebook is asking itself, “How can we translate our dominance in social media into the new realm of VR?”

To be clear, the concept of a “metaverse” is really interesting. Imagine, for example, architecture benefiting from being able to virtually walk through a building before it is built. Also, think about the possibilities of virtual medicine.

Immersive digital 3D worlds are definitely interesting.

But the interesting thing is, it’s not the same as the next billion-user digital platform.

Envisioning the Metaverse to be the next great social consumer space, Zuckerberg takes his company down a garden path while promising a digital Eden.

Meta’s avatars may literally have feet soon, but Zuckerberg’s Metaverse dreams almost certainly won’t.

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