After losing 10 billion, Xiao Za again mentioned the "development schedule" of the meta-universe

Reporting by XinZhiyuan

Edit: David

At SXSW2022, Meta leader Zuckerberg proposed a meta-universe development schedule. He said that the truly functional metaverse may be a few more years away.

It has been almost half a year since Facebook changed its name to Meta and threw itself into the meta-universe vision. But for now, mark Zuckerberg is still less certain about when Facebook will have a functional metaverse.

At the annual tech extravaganza SXSW 2022, Zuckerberg said in an interview that it may be a few years away from the metaverse that can achieve functionality.

In the interview, Zuckerberg talked about the various problems currently facing the metaverse. The "metacosmum" is broadly defined as a digital world (or worlds) built on the internet through technologies such as smartphones, VR headsets, and AR glasses as a place to socialize, work, and shop.

Since the rise of metaversal fever last year, the metaverse that we know and witness today is still a conceptual metacosm.

Zuckerberg spoke of a timeline for a "functional metacosm", which he said is the company's new focus for the future. Currently, the metaverse has several challenges to overcome in terms of hardware, AI, and usability.

He said that more functional metaversms may take a few more years.

"Some of the experiences now are that we're cramming as much technology as possible into a pair of big glasses. But we're probably still a few years away from the first truly augmented reality, and we're probably still a few years away from putting these technologies into a pair of glasses that we usually wear."

And, even then, the AR experience "won't be perfect."

During this time, new products will be introduced, such as the new generation of Quest (formerly Oculus) headsets.

Zuckerberg also compared the significance of the Quest headset to VR technology to the first generation of iPhones to the mobile phone industry.

He said, "It's an important principle to produce new products every few years." He has previously said that Facebook may not more fully realize its metaverse ambitions in a decade.

Zuckerberg also talked about the need to create avatars that resonate with people, not only in terms of skin color and body shape, but also things like wheelchairs and hearing aids.

Facebook's Reality Labs division, which worked on the Meta-Universe project last year, is currently losing $10 billion, and there are plenty of other hurdles to overcome.

Zuckerberg said: "In order to make VR technology take off, first make it look beautiful."

At mobile world congress in February, Zuckerberg said that as technology evolves, metaversities will need connectivity infrastructure that can support that technology, and will need to work with partners to achieve this.

The metacosm is a virtual world, and the important element of the virtual world is interconnection and sharing. Zuckerberg spoke at SXSW that people should be able to bring the digital goods they buy to different digital venues. Take, for example, a virtual sweatshirt.

"You buy a dress in one game or an experience, but you can't wear it in another game, it's not useful," he says. Then you probably won't buy it next time."

Referring to the reasons for the company's name change, Zuckerberg admits that this is partly for the need to "communicate with the outside world", or to tell the outside world that his company has a new business focus outside of its social media services, but also to communicate with his employees.

At SXSW, he again noted that he believes the metacosm will eventually become the most important part of Facebook's business after the name change.

More importantly, the rebranding is meant to make a statement in what Zuckerberg sees as the "next chapter" of the Internet. "A lot of the Meta vision is about putting a flag on and then pushing what we're doing into the future," he said.

"My experience is that when you bet on the future, it tends to come sooner than you think. The future belongs to those who believe in the future more than others."

Resources:

https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/meta-facebooks-new-name-is-focused-on-the-metaverse-and-everything-else-announced/

https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-more-functional-metaverse-a-few-years-away-facebook-2022-3