Apple Senior Vice President of Global Marketing Greg Joswick mentioned metaverse (metaverse) at a meeting a few days ago, saying "This is a word I will never use." There are reports that Apple has been shirking the term in the past. Earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained that the company has been avoiding the word because ordinary people don’t know what it means. At the same time, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of social networking website Facebook (Facebook ), has taken the concept of Meta Universe as the focus of his company. In order to highlight the company's focus on the development of the metaverse, Facebook has changed the company name to "Meta".
It was also reported that in Meta's third-quarter 2022 financial report, the company's revenue in the quarter fell 4% year-on-year to US$27.714 billion. Among them, the Reality Labs, the Meta Meta Universe Division, had revenue of US$285 million, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 49%. The laboratory has accumulated losses of more than US$9 billion this year.
↑Zuckerberg and Apple's senior vice president of global marketing Greg Joswick
Two major technology giants confront each other head-on around the metaverse:
augmented reality or virtual reality?
There are reports that Zuckerberg once bluntly stated that his company had "deep, philosophical competition" with Apple in building the metaverse, and called Apple its competitor. Meta has always believed that VR (virtual reality) is the future, and users can escape from the real world and enter the metaverse, which is what Apple opposes. According to analyst Mark Gulman, citing insiders insiders, Apple does not intend to build a metaverse, but will focus on the research and development of AR (augmented reality) devices to provide users with a breakthrough experience. It is understood that AR is a technology that cleverly integrates virtual information with the real world. It uses multiple technical means such as multimedia and sensing to simulate computer-generated text, images, and other virtual information, and then applies it to the real world, thereby achieving "enhancement" of the real world.
↑Zuckerberg calls Apple its competitor
Some analysts believe that the two technology giants are ready to confront each other head-on in selling AR and VR hardware facilities. It is reported that on June 21 this year, Meta, with Microsoft , Epic Games and other companies, established the Metaverse Open Standards Group, allowing people to easily move in an immersive 3D world through their virtual goods. And Apple was not involved.
reported that Zuckerberg was not surprised by this and said that it was different from Apple in terms of competitive philosophy. Zuckerberg’s vision of the future, people can use avatars to connect with the metaverse, which he has spent nearly $15 billion. Senior executives of companies such as Apple and Snap have doubts about Zuckerberg's idea. It is reported that Cook and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel have decided to focus on AR. Analysis points out that compared with VR, VR, which completely brings people into a new digital environment, AR emphasizes "enhanced" its view on the real world.
Cook previously stated that AR is a profound technology and it will affect everything. He also added that virtual reality is "not the whole of life". Spiegel is also called AR "more immersive".
Meta Meta Universe Business Continuous losses
"Burning money without bottom hole" or future development direction?
According to Meta's third-quarter 2022 financial report, revenue fell 4% to US$27.714 billion in the quarter. As technology stock fell generally, Meta's stock price fell more than 5% on Wednesday. After the financial report was released, Meta's stock price fell further 15% in after-hours trading. According to reports, Meta is facing a series of challenges brought by severe macroeconomic environment and strong competitors. Since the beginning of this year, its stock price has fallen by more than 61%, and its market value has evaporated by more than 550 billion US dollars.
Nevertheless, Zuckerberg is optimistic about the future. He said on the call, "In my opinion, our product trend is improving. I am confident that the situation is moving in a better direction."Meta is reportedly undergoing a huge transformation, shifting its business focus from core social media products such as Facebook and Instagram to meta-universe-centric products. However, data shows that Meta's Reality Labs' revenue in the quarter was $285 million, down nearly 49% year-on-year, with a loss of nearly $3.67 billion. Meta's chief financial officer David Venal explained that this was due to the decline in sales of Quest 2 headsets. It is understood that the division lost about $2.9 billion in the first quarter and about $2.8 billion in the second quarter, and has accumulated a total of more than $9 billion this year. In addition, the company expects losses to increase significantly next year. It is also reported that Meta's previous meta-universe product, Horizon, was previously for consumer Worlds has less than 200,000 monthly active users, far lower than the company's previously set target of reaching 500,000 by the end of this year.
Zuckerberg also expects that the operating losses of Reality Labs will increase significantly year-on-year in 2023, but it will continue to accelerate investment in this business after 2023 so that the company can achieve the long-term growth of its overall operating profit. According to the report, Zuckerberg still insists that he is doing a historic work. "I understand that many people do not agree with this investment, but giving up is wrong." We are doing a historic work that those who have the patience to invest with us will eventually pay off. ”
However, it is reported that Altimeter Capital, one of Meta shareholders, is dissatisfied with the company's large investment in the metaverse. Its CEO Brad Gestner said in an open letter that he hopes Meta will keep its investment in the metaverse within $5 billion a year. It is reported that Meta had previously announced that it plans to invest about $10 billion this year to develop metaverse-related technologies. Gestner said that the company's research on VR may not have results in ten years, and people are even confused about the concept of "member Universe". The report pointed out that the open letter indicates that Meta investors have begun to be reserved about the company's recent performance.
Red Star News reporter Li Jinrui
Editor Yu Dongmei Yang Cheng
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