The Metaverse’s Biggest Problem? Nobody Knows What It Means

A multiverse of Metaverses

Image: Badly edited by author

When a self-proclaimed Metaverse champion (Hello, Mr. Zuckerberg) announced his futuristic vision, he rushed straight to the finish line, desperate to describe his fanciful visions of how the world will spend its work and play time in this new digital environment.

But he jumped the gun. Some 18 months after the rebrand and pivot to the Metaverse, it seems that Zuckerberg has already killed his Metaverse dreams.

It’s partly because of the new shiny object that is A.I. It’s partly because, even though he has control of his boardroom, he’s still driven by the share price. But it’s also because, like all technological advances, everyone who isn’t first is last. It’s all about the so-called First Mover Advantage. Meta has discovered the consequences of not being first several times, finding itself in endless loops of buy or copy to try and make up lost time. Instagram. Snapchat. TikTok. Its lack of innovation has also resulted in the company being beholden to the makers of the devices its platforms need to operate. It means when Apple decides to restrict user data, the company loses billions of dollars in ad revenue. And they can’t do anything about it.

So when it came to the Metaverse — something Zuckerberg heralded as “a big part of the next chapter for the way that the internet evolves after the mobile internet” — perhaps he can be forgiven for rushing to assert his company at the front of the queue.

• He had the virtual headset company
• He had billions of dollars at his disposal
• And he had a clusterfuck of Facebook/Instagram problems to run from

It was a calculated risk that made sense for him at the time. If he could transform Meta into the Metaverse company, he would become the new gatekeeper — all hail.

Yet, it seems he was working with the wrong numbers.

It’s one thing to dream up a vision of the future; the real challenge lies in getting the rest of the world onboard with — hell, to even understand — that vision.

This has proved to be the biggest hurdle Metaverse creators face. In Zuckerberg’s case, when your company pivots to…