Great news for Meta investors. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has revealed to shareholders that the company will lose significant sums of money in the next three to five years.
In a report by Bloomberg, his comments came in response to a shareholder’s question on return on investment at the Meta owner’s annual meeting this Wednesday.
According to the board, a great number of Meta’s product for an “embodied internet”, that allows users to immerse themselves in a virtual world, will likely not be viable for the next 10 to 15 years.
Zuckerberg told shareholders, “We want to get the hardware to be as affordable as possible for everyone, and make sure the digital economy grows.”
Go large or go home
Meta has spent $10 billion to design its metaverse and now has up to 10,000 employees who are working on bringing Zuckerberg’s vision to reality. Meta also wants to bring in a FURTHER 10,000 employees to work on the project. Those plans however, are looking to be put on hold after the company imposed a hiring freeze in early May amid anticipation of an economic slowdown.
But the dream still stands. If Zuckerberg can pull this off before his shareholders (who had been regularly winning back in Zuck’s Facebook days) get itchy trigger fingers, their metaverse will likely eventually generate huge revenue if it can become THE platform for creators and businesses to sell virtual products and services.
Zuckerberg still holds a controlling stake in Meta as 12 shareholder proposals were turned down during the Wednesday’s meeting. One of the proposal called for Meta to commission a report and hold a shareholder vote on whether the “continued implementation” of the metaverse was “prudent and appropriate.”
Both former and current Meta employees have revealed to Insider last April that Zuckerberg is interested in little other than the metaverse but currently lacks a solid strategy for delivering what he believes is the future of the internet.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
