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| Report: Meta is not meeting its Metaverse goals |
Meta's consumer-facing virtual world, Horizon Worlds, has underperformed, according to a Wall Street Journal report today (Saturday).
Meta originally hoped to reach 500,000 monthly active users in Horizon Worlds by the end of this year, but the current figure is no more than 200,000, according to reports in internal company documents.
Additionally, the report shows that most users do not return to the meta world after their first month on the platform, and user numbers have been steadily declining since the spring of 2022.
According to Streets of the World, at least 50 people have visited 9% of the platform's virtual worlds, and most of them have never visited them.
WSJ's new report comes as Meta suffers from a drop in its share price, declining user numbers and declining advertising spend on the company's platform. The data showed Meta shares fell by about 62% year-to-date.
Facebook changed its name to Meta late last year, hoping the new name would reflect its ambitions for a world that is no longer just a social network.
In particular, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has shown an interest in building a virtual world, a virtual world where users can work and play. He believes the metaverse will be the future of online communication.
To this end, it created Meta Horizon Worlds, a network of virtual worlds where users can communicate with each other through virtual avatars. Users can enter these worlds through virtual reality glasses made by Meta.
New Metaverse sunglasses
To add to the excitement in the virtual world, Zuckerberg on Tuesday unveiled the latest $1,500 Meta Quest Pro virtual reality glasses, which feature new technologies like Qualcomm's advanced processor.
A Meta spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the company will continue to improve the Metaverse, a project that took years to develop from the start.
Meta said it aims to release the web version of Horizon Worlds for mobile devices and PC by the end of this year, but a company spokesperson did not give a date.