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Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

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Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#141

Post by sneak »

gruez wrote: post #47
htag wrote: post #4

I imagine Meta has a harder time recruiting then their peer companies, because of their reputation and the moral hazard. I wonder how much investment it will take them to get staff levels back to where they are now. It really feels like they are peaking as a company.

> and the moral hazard What’s the moral hazard? For reference, moral hazard doesn’t mean “working at an immoral company”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_hazard

Building a widespread surveillance society and a centralized trove of user profile data, in a jurisdiction known for disregarding human rights to privacy (see FAA702 et c) and committing genocide when it suits their ends.

Building such a machine (Instagram, FB, WhatsApp, etc) poses a grave danger to a free society if misused, but Meta will not be the ones directly harmed when the databases they built are misused in bulk by the state to commit mass human rights violations or other atrocities.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#142

Post by johannes1234321 »

vineyardmike wrote: post #128
2devnull wrote: post #124

Meta is lame company that’s never had a good product or an original idea. They stole the idea of Friendster/MySpace and used anticompetitive tactics to monopolize. Instagram is sort of cool, but that was just an acquisition. They are the first company that comes to mind when I hear Peter Thiel talk about stagnation. Not that the other fangs are impressive, but Facebook is by far the most underwhelming of the lot. All…

What ways have they been anti-competitive? I hear lots of people refer to fb specifically as a monopoly, and talk about the need to break them up or punish them for behavior. Compared to other fangs, I don’t know what they’ve done? I’m not denying it but genuinely curious what people have to say. Eg Apple has taken heat for its restrictions on App stores and the double standards they impose on competitors. I’ve also…

If you look globally they built initiatives like "internet.org" or "free basics" where they pay telcos to make access to Facebook/Meta sites free. In those markets calling somebody on a phone is expensive, but WhatsApp is free. Looking up a business's website costs expensive data traffic, but checking the business's Facebook page is free. Big pockets finding to make Facebook the internet.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#143

Post by winrid »

gnicholas wrote: post #131
adamlgerber wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not that I don't believe your general point but I would be interested in evidence that you're getting more than 1 in a row. I am $50MM+/year spender on Meta ads and while I know that ad load is up I don't think its up that much where ads run alongside each other. If you can show me evidence of this I will make a big fucking deal of this to Meta.

Email is in profile; I'm happy to send you screenshots. I regularly get 2 ads back-to-back, and I recently got three in a row. I typically bail when I see two in a row, in a vain attempt to send the message that multiple ads back-to-back is not cool. edit: just logged in and of the first 20 timeline items, 9 were ads (including two cases of back-to-back ads). It's basically half of what I see.

I just checked and right now it looks like every other post in my feed is an ad, with some ads having 2-3 posts in between.

I wonder if you don't follow a lot of pages or something, so it's breaking the algorithm.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#144

Post by nivenkos »

zmmmmm wrote: post #104
ehnto wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't have the enthusiasm I don't think, and I believe that is where it falls flat. The technology is not currently something that everyone wants and definitely not something everyone needs. VR is not good at general computing yet, and the form factor and way you engage with it means people won't be using it in the same way they use TVs, game consoles or smart phones. Mass adoption takes apealing to the lowest c…

I think the tipping point is closer than you may realise. There has been material progress in form factors in the last year or so and we are not nearly done with the improvements that are on the radar. Once we hit a certain point with the form factor, quite a wide range of use cases will become a no-brainer (for example, sitting on the bus with it).

> for example, sitting on the bus with it

You'd use an $800 device (with limited awareness of your surroundings) on the bus?

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#145

Post by dbspin »

nivenkos wrote: post #144
zmmmmm wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the tipping point is closer than you may realise. There has been material progress in form factors in the last year or so and we are not nearly done with the improvements that are on the radar. Once we hit a certain point with the form factor, quite a wide range of use cases will become a no-brainer (for example, sitting on the bus with it).

> for example, sitting on the bus with it You'd use an $800 device (with limited awareness of your surroundings) on the bus?

People use their 1200 dollar / euro phones on the bus and in the street at night all the time. Not sure what you're suggesting specifically about public transport - but I would never wear a visually occluding headset on a bus in Ireland. But I would wear it on a coach here, or on a bus in Germany, which has a much safer public culture. Providing it had a small form factor, was relatively discrete etc.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#146

Post by blensor »

bsaul wrote: post #108
threatripper wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the Metaverse something that wants to be done and Meta is its birth helper OR is Meta inventing the Metaverse because it needs something immensely big for its business strategy? My feeling is that Meta is rather running away from a failing business and less running towards a new green meadow.

i really feel like metaverse is only a dream to people with extreme social anxiety. Which may represent a large share of software developers, but only a minority of the general population.

I don't believe this describes only software developers.

Disclaimer: we are the devs behind VRWorkout

In the fitness space there is a huge group of people who would like to go to the gym but don't because of social anxiety. And VR fitness is already one of the major pillars for the headset manufacturers ( Meta, Pico and HTC ). So the social anxiety issue may very well be a driving factor overall

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#147

Post by mFixman »

robryan wrote: post #125
gretch wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you watch kids interact with technology today, you’ll see that there’s already several thriving metaverses in the form of Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft. These services no longer function as games in the traditional sense where there’s an objective you complete to win or lose. I mean yes there’s some of that in there still, but you’ll also see they mainly function as digital hangout places where avatars just goof…

Maybe if Facebook was building their own Roblox or similar people might get behind that. It seems to be all in on VR though.

Facebook is incapable of building their own Roblox: even their ultra-sanitised always-smiling Horizon Worlds gets piled on by the media with dramatic accusations of VR bullying and VR harassment.

Imagine the kind of pearl clutching you would find in The Guardian if Zuck built something closer to VR Chat or Roblox.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#148

Post by nix23 »

brucethemoose2 wrote: post #11

I would not invest in Meta's metaverse future. It feels like Windows Mobile. Meta has the early start, money, captive audience and enthusiasm, but they don't have the hardware/software edge (that Apple coincidentally also has this time around) to really make the idea work. The headsets are not going to revolutionize much running Facebook games on budget Qualcomm SoCs, and Facebook cant buy an Unreal Engine or an M2 P…

>It feels like Windows Mobile.

Wow, that's actually a really good comparison!

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#149

Post by margorczynski »

sneak wrote: post #141
gruez wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the moral hazard What’s the moral hazard? For reference, moral hazard doesn’t mean “working at an immoral company”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_hazard

Building a widespread surveillance society and a centralized trove of user profile data, in a jurisdiction known for disregarding human rights to privacy (see FAA702 et c) and committing genocide when it suits their ends. Building such a machine (Instagram, FB, WhatsApp, etc) poses a grave danger to a free society if misused, but Meta will not be the ones directly harmed when the databases they built are misused in b…

I would add the greatly adverse effect on mental health, especially for young people. Here probably Instagram is the worst offender but they just ignore it even though there is concrete data proving the point.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#150

Post by khaled4vokalz »

After all these layoffs, I really wonder if people will take the risk again in these companies just for the sake of `I'm a MAANG employee`. But as the hype still remains with all these Youtube videos and all I guess the dream will still be there even with the risks that are there.
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