Ada King '24
On October 28th, 2021, Facebook made the announcement that it would change its name to “Meta”. Mark Zuckerberg explained in a video announcement that the name change would better encompass all that Facebook does and more importantly, all that it plans to do.
The idea of a metaverse, a digital space in which people can interact and world build, is not new. There are already existing metaverses like Decentraland, Sandbox, Cryprovoxels, and Somnium. The difference between the Metaverse and the others; scale and power. Meta plans to create both augmented reality, mixed reality, that combines features of the real world and virtual reality, and fully immersive virtual reality experiences. In the metaverse video announcement, Mark Zuckerberg narrated the possibilities that a VR metaverse opens up. “Imagine if you could be at the office, without the commute. . . You would still have that sense of presence, shared physical space, those chance interactions that make your day all accessible from anywhere.” Integrating the metaverse into work has serious implications. Not only would many location-based occupations open up to people from all over the world, commutes to and from office jobs could disappear. It is a sort of teleportation. You can sit at your desk, put on a headset and be transported right into the office in a matter of seconds. Bringing the metaverse into the workplace also means that the consumer base for Meta technology is significantly broadened, from gamers and coders to professionals and Gen X.
In the Metaverse update announcement Meta claims it “designs technology around people.” In many ways this is true. Facebook has faced many allegations of predatory practices where consumers are concerned. Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook, recently spoke about Facebook intentionally creating a “Social validation feedback loop. . . [which] exploit[s] a vulnerability in human psychology.” Meta has assured that it will build, “interoperability, open standards, privacy, and safety. . . into the metaverse from day one.” Although Meta makes promises about the security of the metaverse, it can be hard to believe considering the allegations that have abounded internally. What pays is not always mutually beneficial for user and developer alike.
Another concern many have is how Meta will handle competition in the VR market in the future. The case brief for the FTC’s lawsuit against Facebook stated that, “Facebook has maintained its monopoly position in significant part by pursuing Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) Mark Zuckerberg’s strategy, expressed in 2008: ‘it is better to buy than compete.’ True to that maxim, Facebook has systematically tracked potential rivals and acquired companies that it viewed as serious competitive threats.” Meta has a huge opportunity to create monopolistic competition in the VR market. VR is a fairly new technology, and with Meta dumping billions into its development the company could easily advance the technology far beyond competitors for years to come.
Along with a new social interface, the metaverse also offers a whole new economy. Unlike commodities in the real world, commodities in VR don’t require any actual material. You could become a seller of merchandise with just the ability to code and some imagination, no capital necessary. However, as the metaverse gains popularity and users, Meta has total control over markets within the world. Virtual real estate is already amassing a hefty market size and value. Metaverses like Decentraland restrict the amount of virtual land available, and Meta would have the same capabilities to do the same thing, if not more. The only difference is that while Decentraland is a decentralized autonomous organization, which means that there is no centralized organization making decisions on the gameplay, Meta will govern the metaverse as a sort of centralized government. Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said that, “in the past the speed that new technologies emerged sometimes left policymakers and regulators playing catch-up. . . And I really think that it doesn’t have to be the case this time around, because we have years until the metaverse we envision is fully realized.” Time can only tell if legislatures can adapt quick enough to have regulations against the whole lot of safety and privacy concerns that the metaverse introduces.
The first of the virtual reality capabilities that meta will create is Horizon Home, a place where users can gather and customize individually. Then, Meta plans on creating horizon worlds, which lets users interact outside of their metaverse home. Project Cambria is the VR headset Meta is developing, which will lay the foundation for the further development of augmented reality technology within the company. There aren’t any final date projections, but Meta has assured that it will be at least a few years before this technology is available to consumers.
References
Federal Trade Commission v. Facebook, INC., No. 1:20-cv-03590-JEB (D.C. Cir.
Aug. 8, 2021). Accessed February 14, 2022. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/
documents/cases/ecf_75-1_ftc_v_facebook_public_redacted_fac.pdf.
The Metaverse and How We'll Build It Together. Produced by Meta. Youtube, 2021.
Digital file.
Pandey, Erica. "Sean Parker: Facebook was designed to exploit human
'vulnerability.'" Axios, November 9, 2019. Accessed February 14, 2022.
https://www.axios.com/
sean-parker-facebook-was-designed-to-exploit-human-vulnerability-1513306782-6d18f
a32-5438-4e60-af71-13d126b58e41.html.