4 ms·

It sounds very ambitious and very vague. We know and I'm sure FB knows that this isn't going anywhere interesting, so what're the 700 openings for? If it weren'

by 4wsn 5y ago

It sounds very ambitious and very vague. We know and I'm sure FB knows that this isn't going anywhere interesting, so what're the 700 openings for? If it weren't for the hires and the market being comically inflated I'd have written it off as PR to help the stock out. Or is it just Zuckerberg getting jealous of Musk and wants to get on the bandwagon of hypey messianic bullshit? Might want to take some charisma classes first.

SN76477 5y ago
Sounds like a privatized internet to me.
- canadianfella 5y ago
  How so?
echelon 5y ago
Have you been on VRChat? The stuff is insane already, and I can't fathom what it'll look like in 10-15 years. These companies are at war trying to capture our attention on smartphones. Imagine what they'll do to win when we're all plugged in. AVR is coming, increasingly enabled by the ever faster processors and higher resolution sensors. It'll undo anyone in the lead that can't keep up. People doubted the Instagram purchase back in the day. I think we'll look back on this too as being prescient.
- 4wsn 5y ago
  > These companies are at war trying to capture our attention on smartphones. Imagine what they'll do to win when we're all plugged in. I don't disagree that they're competing for attention, nor that the field is perfect for someone to come along and show us something we weren't expecting (like VRChat; made by two people). But this is Facebook, not DARPA or Skunk Works. Their core offerings are a website, a photo sharing app they acquired, and a messaging app that they also acquired. This is fundamentally an advertising company. The wildcard was a consumer hardware company that they also acquired. This is not DNA that can innovate a 'metaverse' into existence. You can't just grab a couple of executives, a bunch of mid-level managers, and a few hundred developers and demand that they innovate and expect anything to come out of it.
- 3gg 5y ago
  I don't know, it's all a big pass for me.
- emerged 5y ago
  Many of the naysayers are likely picturing the bulky headsets we have today and the other limitations. Good chance Zuck has seen reason to believe future generations of the tech are going to be profoundly better.
bostonsre 5y ago
I think Zuckerberg just thinks vr is really really neat (disclaimer: it is decent, I have an oculus) but he is disconnected from the general population that can't be bothered to try it out and he is surrounded by yes men that are telling him it's an amazing idea.
- shock-value 5y ago
  I tend to think the same. To be clear, I too have an Oculus and I also think VR is really really neat. But this whole pining after "the metaverse" is really silly. Companies may develop experiences analogous to a Second Life, or Roblox, or World of Warcraft, or any other popular MMO (made more immersive by the VR medium), but I doubt they will have any further reach than those. At least I don't know why they would, anyway. To be fair, those games are successful and make lots of money, but compared to Facebook's current business they are a niche concern. So their enthusiasm seems misplaced to me. Plus, VRChat already exists.
  - acomjean 5y ago
    Don’t forget fort-nite. It’s free, has concerts and movie screenings and runs on most platforms. It seems to be meta versing without even realizing it.
    - Animats 5y ago
      Tim Sweeny is very aware that Fortnite is turning into a metaverse. He's commented on that quite a bit and Epic is adding features to Fortnite. Carefully; they don't want to break their cash cow.
  - floober 5y ago
    I don't have an Oculus or even Facebook, but I remember a decade ago that my older relatives were hostile toward the idea of Facebook and moving aspects of their daily lives online. That all changed very quickly and has been very profitable for FB. I don't know if it will be brought about (in part) by Facebook, or if it will even happen anytime soon, but something akin to a "metaverse" seems almost probable to me at this point
willismichael 5y ago
> what're the 700 openings for? To starve the competitors of talent?
- trhway 5y ago
  sidenote: hard to imagine what FB is paying at those positions. I mean top leadership's pet projects are always a bonanza, and that is a pet project of Zuck at FB where pay is already extremely high.
forgingahead 5y ago
I wouldn't doubt Zuck at all, he's shown time and again incredible shrewdness at predicting the future and making bold moves to stake his claim on it (Instagram, Whatsapp, and Oculus, are a few of the large publicly-known ones). Those acquisitions were derided by the chattering classes at the time as well, yet time has shown them to be incredibly far-sighted. Sure, any endeavour can certainly trip over itself and fail, but Facebook is not Yahoo circa 2012. They still have the cash and vision to execute well, and while you may disagree with the implementation (closed-source open world parallel to the current internet), I don't doubt there is a strong vision and motivation to build this within the Facebook leadership.
- 3gg 5y ago
  Oculus never took off. The other two you mentioned were already vastly popular (Whatsapp was the most popular thing in the EU back then, now taken over in part by Telegram.) The purchases were made not out of a grand vision for the future, but simply to hinder and squash competition. The internal emails that have leaked from the company over time show as much.
  - raducu 5y ago
    What do you mean by Oculus never took off?
    - arthurcolle 5y ago
      VR is still super niche. It's not "here" yet for the vast majority of people. I have an Oculus and I don't use it every day
- axegon_ 5y ago
  I would - while successful(financially at least), he's not a good visionary. Let's ignore the fact that I've never been subtle about how repugnant I find him. None of the companies that Facebook acquired were early stage startups like the ones google buys in bulk - they were established products. In all fairness I uninstalled whatsapp the day the aquisition was announced. The core facebook platform is no longer targeting masses but rather niche markets. The metaverse is a niche market. Let's face it, even with the oculus - despite the hype it never really gained a whole lot of traction outside a very small community. I see this an attempt to extend the community but I have serious doubts about the outcome. Now if facebook aquires onlyfans for example...

by 4wsn 5y ago

SN76477 5y ago

Sounds like a privatized internet to me.

canadianfella 5y ago
How so?

echelon 5y ago

Have you been on VRChat? The stuff is insane already, and I can't fathom what it'll look like in 10-15 years. These companies are at war trying to capture our attention on smartphones. Imagine what they'll do to win when we're all plugged in. AVR is coming, increasingly enabled by the ever faster processors and higher resolution sensors. It'll undo anyone in the lead that can't keep up. People doubted the Instagram purchase back in the day. I think we'll look back on this too as being prescient.

4wsn 5y ago
> These companies are at war trying to capture our attention on smartphones. Imagine what they'll do to win when we're all plugged in. I don't disagree that they're competing for attention, nor that the field is perfect for someone to come along and show us something we weren't expecting (like VRChat; made by two people). But this is Facebook, not DARPA or Skunk Works. Their core offerings are a website, a photo sharing app they acquired, and a messaging app that they also acquired. This is fundamentally an advertising company. The wildcard was a consumer hardware company that they also acquired. This is not DNA that can innovate a 'metaverse' into existence. You can't just grab a couple of executives, a bunch of mid-level managers, and a few hundred developers and demand that they innovate and expect anything to come out of it.
3gg 5y ago
I don't know, it's all a big pass for me.
emerged 5y ago
Many of the naysayers are likely picturing the bulky headsets we have today and the other limitations. Good chance Zuck has seen reason to believe future generations of the tech are going to be profoundly better.

bostonsre 5y ago

I think Zuckerberg just thinks vr is really really neat (disclaimer: it is decent, I have an oculus) but he is disconnected from the general population that can't be bothered to try it out and he is surrounded by yes men that are telling him it's an amazing idea.

shock-value 5y ago
I tend to think the same. To be clear, I too have an Oculus and I also think VR is really really neat. But this whole pining after "the metaverse" is really silly. Companies may develop experiences analogous to a Second Life, or Roblox, or World of Warcraft, or any other popular MMO (made more immersive by the VR medium), but I doubt they will have any further reach than those. At least I don't know why they would, anyway. To be fair, those games are successful and make lots of money, but compared to Facebook's current business they are a niche concern. So their enthusiasm seems misplaced to me. Plus, VRChat already exists.
- acomjean 5y ago
  Don’t forget fort-nite. It’s free, has concerts and movie screenings and runs on most platforms. It seems to be meta versing without even realizing it.
  - Animats 5y ago
    Tim Sweeny is very aware that Fortnite is turning into a metaverse. He's commented on that quite a bit and Epic is adding features to Fortnite. Carefully; they don't want to break their cash cow.
- floober 5y ago
  I don't have an Oculus or even Facebook, but I remember a decade ago that my older relatives were hostile toward the idea of Facebook and moving aspects of their daily lives online. That all changed very quickly and has been very profitable for FB. I don't know if it will be brought about (in part) by Facebook, or if it will even happen anytime soon, but something akin to a "metaverse" seems almost probable to me at this point

willismichael 5y ago

> what're the 700 openings for? To starve the competitors of talent?

trhway 5y ago
sidenote: hard to imagine what FB is paying at those positions. I mean top leadership's pet projects are always a bonanza, and that is a pet project of Zuck at FB where pay is already extremely high.

forgingahead 5y ago

I wouldn't doubt Zuck at all, he's shown time and again incredible shrewdness at predicting the future and making bold moves to stake his claim on it (Instagram, Whatsapp, and Oculus, are a few of the large publicly-known ones). Those acquisitions were derided by the chattering classes at the time as well, yet time has shown them to be incredibly far-sighted. Sure, any endeavour can certainly trip over itself and fail, but Facebook is not Yahoo circa 2012. They still have the cash and vision to execute well, and while you may disagree with the implementation (closed-source open world parallel to the current internet), I don't doubt there is a strong vision and motivation to build this within the Facebook leadership.

3gg 5y ago
Oculus never took off. The other two you mentioned were already vastly popular (Whatsapp was the most popular thing in the EU back then, now taken over in part by Telegram.) The purchases were made not out of a grand vision for the future, but simply to hinder and squash competition. The internal emails that have leaked from the company over time show as much.
- raducu 5y ago
  What do you mean by Oculus never took off?
  - arthurcolle 5y ago
    VR is still super niche. It's not "here" yet for the vast majority of people. I have an Oculus and I don't use it every day
axegon_ 5y ago
I would - while successful(financially at least), he's not a good visionary. Let's ignore the fact that I've never been subtle about how repugnant I find him. None of the companies that Facebook acquired were early stage startups like the ones google buys in bulk - they were established products. In all fairness I uninstalled whatsapp the day the aquisition was announced. The core facebook platform is no longer targeting masses but rather niche markets. The metaverse is a niche market. Let's face it, even with the oculus - despite the hype it never really gained a whole lot of traction outside a very small community. I see this an attempt to extend the community but I have serious doubts about the outcome. Now if facebook aquires onlyfans for example...