How Zuckerberg’s Meta Wants to Eat the Metaverse

Mark Zuckerberg says he has no doubts: the internet will definitely become the metaverse and his company’s role, to remain a web giant, is to create software and services for this new reality. For the more distracted: the bet is so strong that Facebook (the parent company) is now called Meta and the investment announced in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) during the next year will be of 10 thousand million dollars (8.7 billion euros). Which involves hiring 10,000 people in Europe (Portugal, for now, is not included, but Spain is) just to develop software and hardware.
While the promises of a bright future are tempting, the truth is that what Zuckerberg has to show for his metaverse today isn’t particularly amazing.

This is because, in theory at least, the metaverse is the place where the digital and real world meet perfectly. When we look at something – a plant, an automobile, or the stars in the sky – and the device that we have at hand or in front of our eyes (the phone, the watch, the glasses…) immediately identifies it and gives it to us. us relevant information. All things that mobile phones already do, but with greater speed and ease. Now imagine this applied, for example, to people and their interactions on social media: if you are married, the last thing you posted… (In this regard, Zuckerberg announced last week that Facebook – the social network – had discontinued the your facial recognition system.)

On the other hand, we can simply “enter” a totally virtual world, adopt whatever personality we want and… imagination is the limit.

This is the promise of the multiverse. The reality, however, is still different. Although Facebook, sorry, Meta, owns the VR Oculus glasses, its virtual universe, now renamed Horizon, is still in its infancy. It will be from here that the metaverse will be developed. At this stage, each user can create a “dolled up” version of themselves, upload themselves to the virtual universe and interact with others. Nothing very new.
You can make video calls between avatars, make appointments, play video games, create communities. Fun for early adopters and little more, at the start.

There is, therefore, to wait and see how far Mark Zuckerberg’s investment will manage to take the metaverse.
So why are so many people worried already?

a lot of worry

The creation of the metaverse has actually been done by developer communities for years: in the so-called Web3, the totally decentralized network where the blockchain reigns, where unique cryptocurrencies and NFT tokens (those made famous by have driven people to buy digital images by millions).