Facebook became Meta one year ago: Here's what it’s achieved

It’s been conscionable implicit a twelvemonth since societal media elephantine Facebook rebranded arsenic Meta astatine the Facebook Connect league connected Oct. 28, 2021.

The sanction alteration reflected the company’s increasing ambitions to transcend past societal media and into the satellite of Web3, crypto, NFTs, and the Metaverse — virtual worlds wherever consumers are apt to walk much of their clip for some enactment and play.

The institution has been busy.

In December 2021, Meta debuted its Horizon Worlds virtual world societal networking project, portion it also opened up advertising for much crypto ads connected Facebook.

In April 2022, reports emerged that the company has been considering a integer currency designed for usage successful the Metaverse internally dubbed arsenic "Zuck Bucks,” though nary further updates connected the task person been seen since.

In May, the institution filed five trademark applications for a payments processing level with enactment for cryptocurrencies and integer assets called Meta Pay.

In September 2022, the institution announced that 2.9 cardinal users would person the quality to station integer collectibles and NFTs they ain crossed Facebook and Instagram crossed 100 countries by linking their wallets.

Meanwhile, connected Oct. 11, Meta announced a concern with tech elephantine Microsoft to bring a scope of Microsoft Office 365 products into Meta’s virtual world (VR) level to effort and coax different companies to enactment successful virtual environments.

However, the twelvemonth has not travel without its challenges, peculiarly erstwhile it comes to the company's Metaverse ambitions. 

Last week, Altimeter Capital’s CEO and founder called Meta’s $10 cardinal to $15 billion a twelvemonth concern into the Metaverse arsenic “super-sized and terrifying.”

Meta’s Q3 study appeared to lone solidify these concerns, with the banal terms falling 23.6% pursuing its release, portion Meta’s virtual world probe and improvement limb Reality Labs posted an accumulated nonaccomplishment of $9.44 cardinal truthful acold this year.

Many whitethorn besides retrieve Meta’s Eiffel Tower fiasco erstwhile an representation of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's avatar lasting successful beforehand of a virtual Eiffel Tower was mocked implicit lackluster visuals.

Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse avatar which became an net meme

Meanwhile, an Oct. 15 report from The Wall Street Journal suggested that the institution has slashed its monthly progressive idiosyncratic extremity for Horizon Worlds by much than half, suggesting the company's flagship Metaverse was "falling short."

This backlash was touched connected by Zuckerberg during the Q3 net telephone connected Oct. 26, noting that “we’re iterating retired successful the open” and that the societal Metaverse level was inactive an “early version.”

“It's a benignant of a unrecorded aboriginal merchandise platform, and that's evolving quickly, but evidently has a agelong mode to spell earlier it's going to beryllium what we aspire for it to be,” said the CEO.

Related: FTX CEO dissects Mark Zuckerberg's intent to pump $10B/year into Meta

Nevertheless, the exertion elephantine is continuing to propulsion guardant with its foray into Web3 and different projects including artificial intelligence, with Zuckerberg noting connected the telephone that “we’re connected the close way with these investments” and the institution “should support investing heavy successful these areas.”

The institution precocious unveiled its latest virtual world headset, the Meta Quest Pro during an Oct. 11 virtual event; on with the concern with Microsoft, and a caller machine level from Reality Labs.

“Work successful the metaverse is simply a large taxable for Quest Pro. There are 200 cardinal radical who get caller PCs each year, mostly for work.”

“Our extremity for the Quest Pro enactment implicit the adjacent respective years is to alteration much and much of these radical to get their enactment done successful virtual and mixed reality, yet adjacent amended than they could connected PCs,” said Zuckerberg.

“Between the AI find engine, our ads and concern messaging platforms, and our aboriginal imaginativeness for the metaverse, those are 3 of the areas that we're precise focused on,” helium added.