Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has refuted claims that it is focusing too heavily on the metaverse, after revealing 80% of its investments are being made in its “core” business.
It has been more than a year since Zuckerberg decided to rebrand Facebook to Meta to align with its ambitious virtual reality (VR) plans but it’s fair to say the pivot has not been a roaring success.
Recent financial reports showed that Meta had lost around $20bn on its big play on the metaverse, and investors are concerned that Facebook and Instagram are no longer being prioritised.
In a new interview, Zuckerberg said the metaverse is “not the majority of what we’re doing”.
He added that the vast majority of its investments are centred on its “family of apps”, which includes the popular WhatsApp Messenger.
However, Meta’s VR and augmented reality (AR) research hub called Reality Labs does account for a relatively large 20% of business spending.
Zuckerberg revealed that its day-to-day tasks are still very much centred on social media platforms and that it would stay this way for “quite some time”.
However, he does envisage the metaverse becoming a top priority when it “becomes a larger thing”, though when that will be is uncertain.
Zuckerberg noted that Meta is currently investing heavily in a long-term project for glasses that are “normal looking” and can be used in place of bulky headsets to access VR and AR apps.
He also forecast that people will be using new devices to communicate in the 2030s and that Meta is eager to invent, invest in and build future technologies.
