4 ms·

Can say with certainty that it's on fire alright, in the sense that the ad data is burning away. The rapid innovation is a survival tactic. They know the ads b

by NBJack 3y ago

Can say with certainty that it's on fire alright, in the sense that the ad data is burning away. The rapid innovation is a survival tactic. They know the ads boat is sinking, and unlike other tech companies, they don't have much diversity in their revenue. Hence the Metaverse, AI, etc. which although neat, are not exactly making the same level of money for the organization (at least not yet). In Q4 2023, ads had a revenue of ~$38B, while the Quest revenue was a loss of $4B. AI hasn't been directly monetized directly, so it's harder to say how that's doing. Given how critical good data is to a model, I'm not optimistic this will work for them.

ysofunny 3y ago
Meta should buy (merge with, gobble up) Valve I bet Microsoft would hate this
- treyd 3y ago
  What good do you suppose would come of that?
- robotnikman 3y ago
  Please no. Valve is doing fine on its own as a privately owned company.
  - ysofunny 3y ago
    I'm not saying it'll be good for people, users, and gamers. but my business intuition says it's a good corporate move
- networkchad 3y ago
  [dead]
riskable 3y ago
It's sad, really: Meta could be making amazing VR headsets and transforming the way people use them by making them more general-purpose (like PCs) but instead they're making VR headsets into toys. Even the Quest Pro, which was meant to be for business use, was a locked-down, hard-to-hack (aka hard for developers to fully utilize) Android toy. And when I say "toy" I mean, it's the software equivalent of a hard plastic device with tamper-resistant screws and "no user serviceable parts" intent. Their dead-set focus on data collection and advertising is sabotaging their ability to make (potentially billions in) revenue from traditional models. I know Zuckerberg and many other CEOs want their "core business" to be just one thing with all the other businesses being offshoots of that one thing but the reality is that they've become too big for that. Zuck needs to give up on the idea of, "our business is data collection and targeted ads for consumers" and realize the truth: Their business is technology.
- ysofunny 3y ago
  because they wanna get into the video game business alas, microsoft owns that space
  - riskable 3y ago
    Actually, Valve owns that space. They have 132 million active monthly users. For comparison, Xbox has 120 million. Seems like only a minor lead until you look at the revenue: Steam (Valve) brings in ~$8 billion in revenue whereas Xbox brings in ~$4 billion. Microsoft's operating overhead with Xbox is also vastly greater than Steam. Supposedly they make ~$28 every time they sell an Xbox One. That's based on just the manufacturing/parts cost of the hardware and doesn't include the costs associated with developing the hardware itself where they don't just take off-the-shelf chips and throw in an existing OS (like the Steam Deck) but instead custom-engineer a processor/architecture and make their own custom operating system.
    - ysofunny 3y ago
      yea, you're technically correct what I was trying to say is that microsoft owns the developer space, Valve has been a tough contender but also, microsoft has never gone straight against valve probably because the business wigs consider videogames less important than microsoft's other businesses. so I should have said that while Valve may own the marketplace (the "app store") microsoft still owns what it takes to make a game in the first place. which is why facebook doesn't really stand a chance against MS. this also explainss how it came to pass that nobody cared about zuckerberg's metaverse... the metaverse didn't get access to the really cool graphic engines
      - PaulHoule 3y ago
        Developer space? Isn’t that like Unity, Unreal, everybody except Microsoft? I think the whole point of XBOX, GAME PASS and all that is to convince people who don’t play games (stock market analysts) that Microsoft is relevant. It’s vice signalling.
    - 3y ago

by NBJack 3y ago

ysofunny 3y ago

Meta should buy (merge with, gobble up) Valve I bet Microsoft would hate this

treyd 3y ago
What good do you suppose would come of that?
robotnikman 3y ago
Please no. Valve is doing fine on its own as a privately owned company.
- ysofunny 3y ago
  I'm not saying it'll be good for people, users, and gamers. but my business intuition says it's a good corporate move
networkchad 3y ago
[dead]

riskable 3y ago

It's sad, really: Meta could be making amazing VR headsets and transforming the way people use them by making them more general-purpose (like PCs) but instead they're making VR headsets into toys. Even the Quest Pro, which was meant to be for business use, was a locked-down, hard-to-hack (aka hard for developers to fully utilize) Android toy. And when I say "toy" I mean, it's the software equivalent of a hard plastic device with tamper-resistant screws and "no user serviceable parts" intent. Their dead-set focus on data collection and advertising is sabotaging their ability to make (potentially billions in) revenue from traditional models. I know Zuckerberg and many other CEOs want their "core business" to be just one thing with all the other businesses being offshoots of that one thing but the reality is that they've become too big for that. Zuck needs to give up on the idea of, "our business is data collection and targeted ads for consumers" and realize the truth: Their business is technology.

ysofunny 3y ago
because they wanna get into the video game business alas, microsoft owns that space
- riskable 3y ago
  Actually, Valve owns that space. They have 132 million active monthly users. For comparison, Xbox has 120 million. Seems like only a minor lead until you look at the revenue: Steam (Valve) brings in ~$8 billion in revenue whereas Xbox brings in ~$4 billion. Microsoft's operating overhead with Xbox is also vastly greater than Steam. Supposedly they make ~$28 every time they sell an Xbox One. That's based on just the manufacturing/parts cost of the hardware and doesn't include the costs associated with developing the hardware itself where they don't just take off-the-shelf chips and throw in an existing OS (like the Steam Deck) but instead custom-engineer a processor/architecture and make their own custom operating system.
  - ysofunny 3y ago
    yea, you're technically correct what I was trying to say is that microsoft owns the developer space, Valve has been a tough contender but also, microsoft has never gone straight against valve probably because the business wigs consider videogames less important than microsoft's other businesses. so I should have said that while Valve may own the marketplace (the "app store") microsoft still owns what it takes to make a game in the first place. which is why facebook doesn't really stand a chance against MS. this also explainss how it came to pass that nobody cared about zuckerberg's metaverse... the metaverse didn't get access to the really cool graphic engines
    - PaulHoule 3y ago
      Developer space? Isn’t that like Unity, Unreal, everybody except Microsoft? I think the whole point of XBOX, GAME PASS and all that is to convince people who don’t play games (stock market analysts) that Microsoft is relevant. It’s vice signalling.
  - 3y ago