![]() Imagine taking a class or having a meeting in Facebook-run virtual worlds. Picture walking down the street wearing Facebook-branded smart glasses, little bits of information about stores or coffee shops appearing as you stroll. The metaverse is essentially the layer between you and reality. Google wants to be the layer between you and day-to-day tasks - booking appointments, scheduling meetings, and so on.įacebook’s desires are arguably more insidious. ![]() So Amazon wants to be the layer between you and shopping, using not just its website but voice assistants, smart buttons, and more to be everywhere. It didn’t pan out that way - Uber sold off its autonomous-car division after it became clear self-driving is a much harder problem to solve than anyone knew - but the desire to become a layer was what drove things. What Uber actually wanted wasn’t to simply be a ride-hailing app on your phone but an entire transportation infrastructure - the tech layer that runs not just rides, but bikes, scooters, transit, and eventually, autonomous cars. Uber, for example, is often thought of a replacement for taxis. ![]() This is often how tech gets misunderstood. The second is that, even if we do, whether we want Facebook - or whatever their name will be - to be the company to run it.īig tech has operated somewhat differently than most corporations in that, rather than simply offering one a product, tech tries its best to become like modern infrastructure. The first thing to ask about the metaverse is whether or not it’s something we want at all. ![]() More practically, the metaverse is likely to be a mix of virtual reality in the form of headsets augmented reality, in which smart glasses and other things layer information atop reality and a host of other tech - maps, wearables, headphones - to shape how you interact with everything. It’s a diffuse idea, and Facebook envisions it as a kind of layer of tech between you and the world. What’s more, with the TikTok app cresting over a billion users and swallowing much of the cultural energy once absorbed by Instagram, Facebook is feeling vulnerable, and is casting about for the next big thing after the familiar newsfeed. Recent reports show that Facebook has poured its significant marketing budget into Instagram rather than its core product, mainly because Facebook is terrified of losing the key younger demographics who grow into a lucrative customer base. It isn’t just the self-inflicted wounds that is worrying Facebook, however. Couple that with a high-profile “60 Minutes” interview with a whistleblower who detailed Facebook’s various failings, and you see how a name change might be just the thing for one of the world’s largest companies to sweep a few unpleasant realities under the rug. Still, for an embattled company, bruised by a string of injuries to its reputation, the change likely reflects a few things Facebook is looking to achieve.įor one, it is now embroiled in a bitter battle with the tech press over various lapses in the company’s track record: privacy gaffes, moderation problems and a failure to tamp down on the ills of social media. According to tech site The Verge, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to announce a new name change that reflects a shift in focus for the company from social networking to what it is calling “the metaverse” - a mix of technologies meant to create a virtual world that Facebook happens to run.
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