Meta: Around half of employees do not understand the metaverse
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg needs to do a better job of communicating his Metaverse vision to employees and investors.
In a survey of 1,000 Meta employees conducted in May, 58 percent said they understood the company's Metaverse strategy, the New York Times reports. Conversely, that means 42 percent of Meta employees have not yet internalized the Metaverse vision. The survey was conducted through the anonymous corporate social network Blind.
It is not clear from the survey in which departments the employees surveyed work. Meta is a large company with around 70,000 employees. The vast majority deal with the core business of social media advertising and not with the Metaverse. An awareness level of 58 percent could also be interpreted positively in this context.
Making Mark happy
There is also said to be some internal discontent at Meta, due to high employee turnover and the restructuring of teams according to Zuckerberg's priorities. Two employees said Metaverse projects were jokingly referred to internally as "M.M.H." projects: "Make Mark happy."
Last week, internal memos from Horizon Worlds CEO Vishal Shah came to light, twice urging Meta employees to increase their use and testing of Horizon Worlds in their daily work. Overall, the number of Horizon meetings is said to have increased in recent months, the NYT reports.
Metas loses investors
Meta's share price has lost about 60 percent since the beginning of the year, significantly underperforming the U.S. technology index Nasdaq (circa -30 percent). Meta subsequently halted hiring and some projects.
Meta's weak stock performance can be taken as a sign that investors see more challenges than growth potential in Meta's existing businesses and do not consider the Metaverse vision a viable replacement.
Metaverse descriptor Matthew Ball, whose theses also guide Zuckerberg, sees a risk that Meta has chosen the wrong time for the Metaverse transformation. The pressure on Meta's core business is acute, significant and unrelated to the Metaverse, Ball told The New York Times.
According to Ball, there is a risk that Zuckerberg is right about everything he says about the Metaverse, but that the timing is further in the future than he imagines. Zuckerberg typically cites a time frame of about ten years for his Metaverse vision and doesn't expect significant revenue before 2030.
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