"From now on, we will prioritize Metaverse, not Facebook," the CEO said in a virtual address at the company's Connect event last year.
Mark Zuckerberg and Meta have been gone a year since making the statement. CEO Meta demonstrated VR technologies and convinced many professional athletes to play VR games. He also appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast to talk about mixed martial arts and virtual reality.
But Metaverse has also proven to be a huge pittings, with the company losing billions of dollars in its ambitions in just last year and the trend likely to continue.
In 2021, the company announced a plan to hire 10,000 workers in Europe to serve its purpose. However, Meta is currently cutting staff and reorganizing the team.
So, before this year's Connect event takes place, let's look back at Meta's year with the ambition of Metaverse.
Can Mark Zuckerberg clearly explain Metaverse?
It should have been clarified as soon as possible, but for nearly a year since Zuckerberg first talked about Metaverse, it's not really clear.
In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg described it as a tangible Internet where you experience it, not just look at it. The company's website now says Metaverse is the next development in social connectivity and the inheritance of mobile internet.
But its meaning is still very vague to most people. In addition to early adopters and technology insiders, there is still confusion about what Metaverse is and what we will do with it, says Carolina Milanesi, consumer analyst at Creative Strategies.
That means CEO Mark Zuckerberg will not only need to give an easy-to-understand definition, but also a vision of what it means to billions of people who are using Meta's platform.
Is it beautiful?
Meta's Metaverse looks... a little bad at the moment.
This was clearly shown when Mark Zuckerberg enthusiastically shared a photo of his avatar in Horizon Worlds in front of Eiffel Tower.
Many people do not hesitate to say that the quality of this virtual environment is too flat and amateurish. Meta CEO quickly changed to a new representative and promised that the items would have better designs for the virtual world of Horizon Worlds, launched at the Connect event.
Meta will have to do many things to make the company's virtual space look more modern and realistic. At least, it should be as beautiful as some current games like Fortnite to be able to attract users.
Milanesi added that it will not just be for meetings or hanging out with strangers in the VR space. I think there are other cases of use in the educational or entertainment aspect, which can be a little more interesting, she said.
However, Meta's hopes for a better virtual space seem to be far away. Currently, the company's virtual space is still struggling for employees to use it consistently.
How will it handle harassment, misinformation and other harmful effects?
According to Meta's tracking records of unintended harms, the company says little about plans to address these problems in Metaverse. The company has given a quick nod about trust and safety in Metaverse - Meta's chief policy officer, Nick Clegg, talked about determining the standards for Metaverse - but so far, everything is still not really clear.
Although the company still launched user privacy protection features, such as individual boundaries, it only came after reports of harassment on Metaverse were reported. That is also only a solution to some of the many cybersecurity problems that the company has to solve.
