![]() It’s widely believed that Meta sells its Quest headsets at a loss. But Facebook believes it’s playing the long game here. That’s not to say that having a division that’s $42 billion in the red over four years doesn’t impact its bottom line, of course. The corporation made $134 billion in revenue and $39.1 billion in net income last year. Why is Meta hemorrhaging that much money? The simple and cynical answer is, because it can. That’s a little over one-fourth a Zuckerberg (not adjusted for inflation - i.e., BJJ-related bulking). That’s roughly 21x the price it paid for Oculus, not adjusting for inflation. Between the end of 2020 and the first quarter of 2024, the company’s metaverse division lost $42 billion. From a purely financial standpoint (the only language shareholders speak), things are bleak. So where are we now? It’s complicated, obviously. Remember what a big deal it was when its avatars finally got legs? Mark Zuckerberg is probably as guilty as any single person for perpetuating that perception, happily working his hardest to make the company’s Horizon Worlds platform synonymous with conceptions of the metaverse. I suspect that were you to perform a blind poll, the majority of people who are familiar with the term meta would describe something like Second Life, the virtual world that to be on its fifth or sixth life by now. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face - just by putting on goggles in your home.” “After games, we’re going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. “Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won’t be changing and we hope to accelerate,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote at the time. So, where, as of April 2024, does the Facebook/Oculus deal rank? But there’s always that little-discussed middle ground between transforming the human condition and just being an abject dumpster fire of failure. A decade after the deal was announced, it’s safe to say that the VR headset hasn’t changed the world we live in. It evokes a flood of romanticized images of Homebrew Computer Club nerds soldering together circuit boards in South Bay garages.Ī decade has now passed since Meta (née Facebook) announced plans to acquire the startup for $2 billion. It was a remarkable presentation, in hindsight - an all-too-rare glimpse into a plucky entrepreneurial tech spirit. More than anything, the system resembled a hastily duct-taped ski mask. Oculus’ Rift prototype felt like just such a device when it first crossed my radar more than a decade ago. In fact, you’re extraordinarily lucky if you average one a year. ![]() The dirty secret of this job is that true, game-changing inventions rarely cross your desk. Frankly, I don’t know how the editors do it. Every year, Time Magazine issues a list of the 200 best inventions of the past 12 months.
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