Metaverse, numbers increasingly in red. And companies are running away
It was supposed to be the new world, the future of technology that would revolutionize our lives forever. In reality, he was and is the only one who really focused on it Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, who continues to invest in Meta in the hope of reviving it despite the lack of support in the world. We are talking about Metaversean immersive virtual universe enabled through the use of viewers.
It was supposed to be the future, but in recent months most people who believed in the project have seen their hopes dashed. Even the European Commission, which opened its personal metaverse costing 345,000 euros, recently had to close it due to the low number of entries.
According to the Independent: From 2019 to the summer of this year, Meta recorded a loss of $40 billion in the Reality Labs divisionwhich focuses on the development of the latest technologies and therefore the metaverse.
Fears that the Reality Labs division would suffer significant losses were confirmed in July this year, when the company announced A Operating loss of $3.7 billion in the second quarter, despite revenue of just $276 million, down from $339 million in the first quarter. Analysts had predicted that Reality Labs would report revenue of $421 million and operating losses of $3.5 billion, highlighting the wide divergence between the company’s forecasts and actual results.
As highlighted in the CNBC graphic, In 2022, Reality Labs reported a total loss of $13.8 billion, despite revenue of $2.16 billion, driven in part by sales of VR devices.
For meta, however, everything Losses were an integral part of the business plan. In the aforementioned July report, the company made clear predictions that Reality Labs’ operating losses would increase significantly over the course of the year. This increase in losses is directly related to Meta’s tireless efforts in developing products related to augmented and virtual reality. Furthermore, the losses were also due to the huge investments required to further expand the augmented and virtual reality ecosystem.
This uncertainty is causing more and more companies to distance themselves from this world. As Disneywhich had big plans in this area, but had to postpone them due to a lack of interest in this new technology. According to the Wall Street Journal In March, all members of the dedicated team were laid off, just four months after the department was founded.
Even Asia’s largest internet company, TencentHe disbanded his 300-man unit in February. The social media company Snapchat He eliminated his team last year.
Disney’s departure from the emerging Metaverse comes as several major companies have put their plans for the technology on hold amid growing interest from the world of cryptocurrencies and the explosion of artificial intelligence.
And the Metaverse could be the new territory into which mafia organizations and drug cartels could expand. This is revealed by the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate (Slide), The in his latest report focuses on encrypted communication platforms and generally on the deeper levels of the Internet.
The document, which refers to the second half of 2022, puts an emphasis on the new scenario.regarding which Europol has already highlighted potentially critical issues“. In fact, the effectiveness of criminal organizations is underlined.to quickly grasp technological changes and economic-financial phenomena on a global level“. The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) also sounded the alarm.
Governments, international bodies, investigators and prosecutors are breaking new ground, with many European countries investing heavily in tracking down online crimes, such as the postal police of Estonia, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The latter began building its online presence in 2015 and now has so-called “Nice Patrulje“, Internet patrols in every district. They are present on various social media, gaming and streaming platforms and have 509,000 followers each @politivest on TikTok.
