"You remember the metaverse, don't you? The next stage of the internet's evolution: a virtual reality full of legless avatars, sprawling, lifeless, digital malls, and nausea-inducing headsets. Upon the inception of the metaverse, its enthusiasts looked at vast swaths of the economy-gaming, online retail, digital advertising, compulsory Zoom meetings-and said: Imagine we did more of this, but on virtual reality platforms, mediated by micro-transactions and facilitated by cryptocurrency-backed assets."
"Relabeling the digital economy as the "metaverse" was a simple, elegant move-as well-as a deeply cynical effort to rebrand already existing digital markets as the next internet-that allowed forecasts to assume an air of inevitability. Until it wasn't. Perhaps more urgently now, the metaverse should also be understood as a dress rehearsal for today's AI boom: The former was to succeed the mobile internet, while the latter now promises to be "more profound" than electricity or fire. Perpetually inflating definitions."
Meta effectively ended its metaverse push after Reality Labs accumulated $73 billion in losses over five years and failed to turn a profit. Reality Labs faced a 30% budget cut at a strategy meeting, compared with a 10% company-wide reduction. Wall Street reacted by adding $69 billion to Meta's market capitalization. The metaverse envisioned VR worlds with avatars, digital malls, and headsets, promising to move gaming, retail, advertising, and meetings into virtual platforms mediated by micro-transactions and crypto assets. The effort exemplified inflated definitions, manufactured inevitability narratives, massive infrastructure spending, and unmet consumer demand, and now reads as a dress rehearsal for the AI boom.
Read at Fast Company
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