I remember a time when people thought 3D printers were the future. Do you recall that many companies bet on 3D television to dominate the market? Or that Napster was the future of the music industry or predating Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), that Myspace was a social media giant that can never be upended?
Many things predicted to be the next big thing have eventually turned out to be either much smaller than expected or not a thing. In some cases, the next big thing turned out to be less important than anticipated. For example, everyone thought the Internet would kill brick-and-mortar stores, but on the contrary, they continue to thrive, and people continue to buy printed books in large amounts.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has the next big thing he is betting on, the Metaverse. He is betting the company’s fortunes on it. He has renamed his company Meta Platforms to reflect that belief. But does Zuckerberg ever think he might be wrong? For example, one CEO stated that Zuckerberg is wrong in his metaverse enthusiasm during a television appearance.
Will People Ditch Reality For Virtual Reality?
If you have been reading headlines on the Internet, you must be familiar with people spending vast sums of money to buy virtual real estate. Maybe like buying virtual land for a pet who doesn’t understand the significance. Have you ever thought about how absurd it would be to buy a gift for someone that they didn’t need just because you saw it from a cable commercial?
In a CNBC interview, Expedia CEO Peter Kern thinks that people’s interests will be more in the real world rather than transition to a virtual world. “The metaverse doesn’t seem like a competitive threat. I might be intrigued by it like everyone else, … but it’s much more about the real-verse,” he said in a comment during the interview. Kern doesn’t think the metaverse experience will replace real experiences.
“Those experiences change our lives. The metaverse cannot replace being in Rome, or Paris, or taking a trip to the National Park,” he said.
According To Mark Zuckerberg, He’s Wrong
Mark Zuckerberg believes the Internet is at the next chapter. He laid out his next steps in a letter he sent to Facebook employees. The letter was written when Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) changed its name to Meta.
In the letter, he describes the metaverse as an immersive experience, where the user is part of the experience and not just viewing it. The Internet’s defining quality, according to him, will be a feeling of presence - two people connected by the Internet as if they are right there in the same place or another place. That would be the attainment of the dream of social technology and his company's vision.
He also wrote about doing anything possible that one desires in the metaverse. Whether it be shopping, gaming, hanging out with friends, learning, workings, and completely new experiences that have not been imagined or don’t fit with how we use computers and the Internet.
Reflecting on his opinion, Kern stated that he believes the metaverse will exist, like Zoom (NASDAQ: ZM) and other new technologies, but people will go about their lives the way they do today. But he admitted that he might be wrong.
“Maybe I might be proved wrong,” he opined. “Maybe 100 years from now, humans will be communicating in the metaverse with headsets on. But for the foreseeable future, that is unlikely to happen.”
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