The (Real) Reason Facebook is Going Meta
Facebook's recent rebranding leaves many questions. By choosing to be known as Meta, Mark Zuckerberg and co are making a bold move, no doubt.
Call it "Move fast and..." (What comes after the "and" we don't quite know yet.)
But one thing is for certain - Facebook's shifting focus to the metaverse is grounded in one, very simple belief: consumerism is here to stay.
The core business model of Facebook - as Zuckerberg attempted to explain some time ago to his grey-haired Senate interrogators - is to sell ads. And selling ads is predicated upon the assumption that people want to buy. It is a similar assumption to the one that kicked off Facebook in the first place: people like to consume (personal) content.
Forget the "social connection" overlay - most human activity on the internet and by extension on Facebook and social media is to consume - knowledge, photos, videos and so on and so forth.
Now Meta is betting that in an expanded, digital and eventually totally virtual world, people will continue to consume.
And Meta will be there to take advantage.
In many ways, this bold step by Facebook is akin to a large-scale land-grab, a colonial takeover much like Belgium's infamous conquering of the Congo. It may seem smart to scoop up the mental real estate associated with the emerging world of VR and AR, not to mention cryptocurrencies, gaming and NFTs.
Being first has its advantages, of course.
But will the same business models work in this brave new world? Will people around the world really consume as much in the metaverse as they do in real life? And if so, can you sell to them?
The jury remains out on the topic. But as Facebook's stalled Libra project showed - putting old wine in new bottles is not as easy as it sounds. And it is entirely possible that after the pandemic, the world’s population may actually be less ready to go “full-on digital” than they were before.
By choosing to be called Meta, Zuckerberg may wish to create a fresh start by 'zooming out' and repositioning Facebook, Instagram and social networking on a higher level.
But he will not be able to ignore the details of reality - privacy concerns, free speech safety and shifting developer attitudes - no matter how much he wants to go virtual.