Mixed Reality and AI become bigger focus for Meta's next headset
Last week Meta reported its biggest loss to date and began to breakout financial results for its VR unit that showed growing costs and declining revenue vs Q42022.
Somewhat buried in the reports is Zuckerberg’s urgency to stem these losses with arguably evolutionary features vs his previously grandiose goals for VR as far back as 2017. He knows investors, current and potential partners, and Meta’s own employees need immediate wins to rebuild trust in Meta’s Metaverse ambitions. The quick wins and what they mean:
1. Reels: Meta is prioritizing the monetization of Reels with generous compensation, including bonuses, to spur quality content in its battle with TikTok. The unsaid part is Reels being the testing ground for Meta’s AI ambitions to prompt better social engagement throughout all of its individual platforms. A content-first AI could become Meta’s greatest asset.
2. Mixed Reality: The real signal of Meta’s pivot, Meta Reality, affords more immediate opportunities by being more approachable to a consumer now used to AR environments. Mixed reality also opens more B2B opportunities particularly in training, human resources and product development. More prominent integration within Meta Quest 3 accomplishes all of this.
The immediate takeaway is that VR’s leading proponent remains committed to his Metaverse vision but it’s likely going to be a longer timeline as consumer adoption remains stagnant. It also brings greater utility, better content and likely a significantly larger number of people to be exposed to Meta’s VR vision and that should be a win for all of us invested in its long-term success.