In the early morning of October 29, 2021, Beijing time, Mark Zuckerberg announced at Facebook's Connect developer conference that the company name would be changed to "Meta" and officially enter the "meta-universe".
Zuckerberg doesn't seem to realize that the whole world will follow Meta's footsteps to engage in the "metacosm", but he has decided to create a "metacosm" and will not give up easily. At the age of 18, Zuckerbork turned down a job at Microsoft that earned $950,000 a year and chose to attend Harvard University.
After attending Harvard, he chose to drop out of school because of Facebook's development and built Facebook into a globally renowned business. Zacker burke has not only the courage to give up a well-paid job, but also clear judgment and huge ambitions.
Facebook's name change to Meta highlights Zacker Burke's personality even more, the "metaverse" can be called the next Internet era, and the latest entry must be the first person to eat crabs. With the company's strength to develop the "meta-universe", how big is Zuckerberg's chess game?
1. Facebook's ambitions have long been exposed
Meta has been vigorously developing the VR industry before, and its Oculus brand has become one of the world's best VR hardware companies, and its product Quest2 is predicted to have reached tens of millions of sales.
Oculus was bought by Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, when Facebook was considered to have taken in a little brother, and Oculus was just holding a thigh. But unexpectedly, Oculus turned out to be the beginning of Facebook's development of the "meta-universe".
In fact, facebook's press release at the time already showed its ambitions: we believe that communication can drive the development of new platforms, we want to contribute to a more open and connected world, and we all see virtual reality as a new frontier.
Does "a more open and connected world" mean the "metacosm" proposed by Meta today?
2. Acquisition of multiple enterprises
Facebook is familiar with the acquisition of enterprises, and for the ambition of the "meta-universe", the acquisition of Oculus is just the beginning.
Meta acquired AI startup AI.Reverie in August 2021. The team, which focuses on the development of synthetic data generation platforms, will join Reality Labs, which focuses on the AR/VR metaversic business, and help provide the ability to synthesize real-world simulation versions.
Meta acquired Within and said the studio would operate under the umbrella of Meta Reality Labs, Meta's XR organization, at a price that was not announced at the time. As with its previous acquisition of VR studios, Meta said Within will continue to "continue to operate independently." It's the first acquisition of Meta after the name change, but combined with the Facebook era, it's the sixth acquisition of studios in nearly two years.
Analysis from several companies acquired by Facebook, including game studios, AI research and development companies, etc., shows that Facebook really wants to create a "universe" that belongs to it completely.
3. The Chinese gangster joins the board of directors of Meta
January 12, 2022 Meta announced that Tony Xu, co-founder and CEO of Doordash, has joined Meta's Board of Directors with immediate effect, while Meta's Board of Directors has officially reached 10 members.
Tony Xu has served as CEO and board member of a U.S. food delivery service provider since May 2013 and was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of DoorDash in November 2020.
Zuckerberg said: "Tony has built an excellent service for millions of people, allowing them to get food from hundreds of thousands of restaurants and small businesses and so on. I've always thought it's important to have good technology leaders on our board, and Tony has direct experience running a tech company and solving complex challenges in business. I look forward to learning from his perspective as we build the metacosm. ”
Tony Xu said: "Millions of local merchants use Meta's tools every month to grow and run their businesses. As the company moves into the next phase, I look forward to working with the Board. ”
It is understood that Tony Xu is a US takeaway service provider and has provided services in many countries after years of development.
Joshua To, Google's AR/VR director, was transferred to Facebook's AR/VR R&D department in July 2021, and Washington, D.C.-based lawyer Joseph Jerome joined Facebook to address AR/VR privacy issues internally.
Tony Xu is different from the two big names who have joined before, both of whom have clearly served VR/AR, and Tony Xu, as a food delivery executive, seems to have nothing to do with VR/AR.
According to Zuckerberg, he thinks Tony Xu is a leader who understands technology. Predicting that Zuckerberg will include Tony Xu on the board of directors, he hopes to help build a "metacosm" through Tony Xu's leadership ability to help Meta win this game of chess.
4. Summary of the whole text
Since the acquisition of Oculus, this game of chess has been played, but the outside world is not familiar with the development of Meta. Now Meta officially said to create a "meta-universe", although Tencent, ByteDance and other companies have accelerated to catch up, but for Meta, which has been laid out for many years, it has already left a number of enterprises behind.
When exactly is meta this game going to be played, and how big is it going to be played? I'm afraid only Meta and Zuckerberg know. Enterprises that have begun to develop the "metacosm" have not even figured out what the "metacosm" is, and capital has already harvested a wave of leeks.
As long as Meta is still in this game, Tencent and other companies may still reverse the reversal, but in the face of Meta's pressure, it is not so easy to turn over. Also, if Meta's "metaverse" involves monopoly and privacy issues, will other businesses take the opportunity to overtake Meta?
Until Meta has truly realized the "metacosm", we still expect the "metacosm" to be a truly more open and interconnected world!