For Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, Facebook’s attempt to create a metaverse will not work. The reason would be the lack of a clear definition of what the metaverse is and, more importantly, what the public is looking for.
Buterin’s criticism comes after Meta reported a loss of US$2.81 billion. in its virtual reality business in the second quarter of this year. This helped to cost Mark Zuckerberg $3 billion of his fortune and slide him down the list of the world’s richest people.
Regardless, Meta’s VR hardware continues to increase its dominance in the industry due to its profitability. Therefore, the company’s strategy of monopolizing the sector may pay off in the future.
Ethereum’s creator believes in metavers but not Meta
Although searches on the term metaverse have dropped significantly since Facebook changed its name to Meta, the sector remains the big bet for the computing industry.
One example is the spending of Reality Labs, Meta’s virtual reality division, in the second quarter of this year. According to the company’s own report, this division lost US$2.8 billion and generated revenues of US$452 million in that period.
Following the release of these figures, the creator of Ethereum criticized Meta on Twitter, the rival social network of Facebook. For Vitalik Buterin, the mistake of Zuckerberg’s company is to invest in an industry whose demand is still a mystery.
The metaverse is going to happen, but i don’t think any of the current attempts by companies to intentionally create the metaverse will go anywhere.
“my criticism goes further… It’s just that we don’t know the definition of ‘metaverse’ yet, it’s too early to know what people really want. So everything facebook creates now will fail,” vitalik buterin continues in his explanation.
Vitalik Buterin criticizes Facebook’s bet on the metaverse
Meta continues to dominate the hardware sector and is raising prices.
Although the metaverse is an unknown quantity, not even having a clear definition, it is striking that Meta dominates the base of the sector. In other words, the company’s big bet is on the hardware that will enable access to these new worlds.
According to hardware surveys conducted by Steam, the world’s largest gaming platform, two out of three people use Facebook’s Oculus. The sweet spot is for Quest 2 because of its cost-benefit ratio.
Steam’s survey of virtual reality hardware in July 2022. Source: Powered by Steam.
With little competition and still posting billions in losses, Meta decided in recent weeks to raise the price of Quest 2 by 33%, from $299 to $399, believing it would balance its books.
Finally, Facebook’s bet on the metaverse does not seem to please investors. After all, its shares have already fallen by 58% since September last year, a period marked by the crisis of the global economy. name change and the direction of the company.
