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Why Facebook is spending billions on the metaverse

johncoogan.com

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Re: Why Facebook is spending billions on the metaverse

#3

Post by littlestymaar »

Because Facebook is now a social network used mostly by people from 40 to 70. They aren't trendy anymore, and most of the Facebook-related press headlines in the past 5 years have been about privacy or advertisement scandals. They are in desperate need for some good PR if they want to restore their brand name.

Re: Why Facebook is spending billions on the metaverse

#7

Post by echelon » 

  > The metaverse will have unprecedented interoperability. 
  > This means being able to bring a Fortnite skin into Minecraft and vice versa
For the life of me, I can't understand why this is important. Nobody cares about this. I don't want to move skins around. Besides, if there's a digital marketplace, people will create their own duplicates of any 3D asset.

Just look at VRChat.

Zero value.

  > The metaverse will have a fully functioning economy.
"You wouldn't download a car."

I can see pay to play, commissioned 3D asset work, etc., but ultimately most things digital can be replicated and copied cheaply.

  > There will be no cap on concurrent users.
Even so, kids will still be telling each other to join their customized private Minecraft servers.

A system without rules and moderation allows communities to grow in their own ways.

The best metaverse platform will have a downloadable, moddable client and server that lets people spin up their own instances.

Re: Why Facebook is spending billions on the metaverse

#8

Post by enlyth »

littlestymaar wrote: post #3

Because Facebook is now a social network used mostly by people from 40 to 70. They aren't trendy anymore, and most of the Facebook-related press headlines in the past 5 years have been about privacy or advertisement scandals. They are in desperate need for some good PR if they want to restore their brand name.

Except everyone young still uses Instagram

Re: Why Facebook is spending billions on the metaverse

#9

Post by krm01 »

As I was watching their 'keynote' I couldn't help but wonder about the many companies that took a similar approach and then died. Spending a ton of money on something doesn't make it automatically successful. [1]

In fact, history has shown the opposite to be true.

Take Facebook itself for example, it succeeded, not because it poured Billions into building its social network. Mark built something small, for a small market. Reached a monopoly quickly, then expanded to the next market. One after the other.

Google, Apple, Airbnb, Stripe, none became the giants they are because they spent billions on a grand vision.

Even if you look at established companies like Apple, and how they launched their first iPhone.

I've worked with tons of startups, helping them with UI/UX design. So usually in their early stages and get to see how they go from prototype to success or failure. [2]

Can 100% confirm that YC's advice of building something small for a small audience and then slowly grow that is the best advice to increase your chances of success.

Facebook should know this.

So I understand it's my observation vs Billions of dollars and a lot of very smart people who're working on it.

But History says this won't work.

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/22/magic-leap-announces-layof...

[2] https://fairpixels.pro

Re: Why Facebook is spending billions on the metaverse

#10

Post by JKCalhoun »

Gross.

If anything, the more I have become ensconced in the internet the more I have begun to appreciate the physical world. My mental health must be wired to require actual trees, sunshine, birds, walks in the neighborhood....

Like a library, I want my internet to be there when I want it, but I don't want to live in it.

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