The method behind Meta's madness

Why Mark Zuckerberg is trying to teleport away from Facebook's problems

Facebook
(Image credit: Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for Facebook)

The smartest insight and analysis, from all perspectives, rounded up from around the web:

The company formerly known as Facebook is staking its future on the "metaverse," said Lauren Goode at Wired. In a monumental pivot, the world's biggest social network announced last week it was rebranding itself as "Meta," a nod to what more and more tech companies claim will be "the successor to the mobile internet." In a presentation that was supposed to illustrate this metaverse, CEO Mark Zuckerberg "moved in and out of spaceships and forest scenes" and even "hydrofoiled alongside a world-class surfer" in virtual reality. Why is Zuckerberg doing this? asked Kevin Roose at The New York Times. It could be just a way to distract from Facebook's recent scandals. But there's a case to be made that this pivot is necessary to save his company. Zuckerberg's flagship product is "rapidly losing the attention of teenagers and twentysomethings." If the metaverse "encourages young people to strap on Oculus headsets instead of watching TikTok videos," it could solve a lot of Facebook's problems.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us