Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta | A Complete Guide

You’ve probably seen the commercials for Facebook’s Meta rebrand. The brand change signals a major paradigm shift for one of the world’s leading social media platforms. I have done some in-depth research on Meta and what the company holds for its’ users, here’s what I found out.

What is Meta?

Meta is Mark Zuckerberg’s platform that offers an immersive and embodied internet experience where you are in the internet. By using technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality through the lens of smart glasses, users can work, learn, play, shop, create, and more in a virtual atmosphere known as the metaverse. 

In addition to having the ability to do all of that, Meta will allow users to experience an entirely new internet concept never before explored. Mark believes the metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet. Allowing you to feel present like you’re actually there with people, no matter how far away you actually are.

Making eye contact and having a shared sense of space is the whole point of Meta’s experience. Instead of looking at your screen, you’re going to actually live in the moment.

Mark Zuckerberg is not without contemporaries in his Metaverse ambitions. There are several existing examples of virtual worlds where participants can interact with others in unique settings. Comparing these to Zuckerberg’s Meta vision can help us better understand what Meta may look like when it’s complete.

Decentraland is one such metaverse platform. Think Minecraft, but with more of a reflection of real-life places and events. Players can freely explore the world and interact with their surroundings, but they must own cryptocurrency to purchase homes, clothing, tools, and the like. Zuckerberg envisions a metaverse that is more inclusive, although digital currency may still play a factor.

What does Meta actually mean?

The word meta is a prefix meaning “after” or “beyond”. So what is the metaverse beyond or after? You could say that Zuckerberg’s vision for Meta extends beyond the realms of the internet as you know it. 

For Mark Zuckerberg, Meta symbolizes that there is always more to build, and always a new chapter of the story, and that’s why Mark made the decision to change his company’s name to Meta. If you’re anything like me you’re likely curious to know what the benefits of Meta are, so let’s take a look at some of the benefits Meta offers users.

What are the benefits of Meta?

For those looking to invest in new technology, it’s important to first get a handle on the potential benefits of the network. Let’s break down the different benefits and goals of Meta and its experiences for users.

1. Communication

The main quality of Meta and the metaverse in the macro is communication. Meta produces a new sense of presence never before experienced on the internet. You are able to see others’ facial expressions and their body language, giving you the ultimate internet experience.

3D Avatars will be the number one way we communicate and interact with each other in Meta. In fact, Mark says that avatars will be as common as profile pictures. You will have different avatars depending on what you’re doing. For example, you’ll have one for work and another one for socializing, which can all be created by different creators.

A lot of things that are physical today such as screens will be holograms in Meta. Furthermore, you are able to take your digital assets and showcase them in the real world through augmented reality technology.

One example of communication Mark is bringing to the Meta platform is messaging calls in the form of VR. You will be able to invite your family and friends into the call and even explore various virtual worlds with each other.

2. Entertainment

Imagine your friend is at a concert across the world and you’re stuck at home. Well now with Meta, you have the ability to be there at the concert with your friend virtually. You can see how the metaverse is going to enable richer internet experiences.

Meta is building tools that creators can use to place digital objects into the real world, allowing others to interact with them. These 3D assets will be able to respond and react realistically, including a realistic sense of depth and inclusion.

Furthermore, Meta is giving creators the ability to connect different physical locations into cohesive AR storytelling experiences such as guided tours and scavenger hunts. Also, Meta is building a Horizon marketplace where creators can sell and share their 3D creations.

It’s critical to Meta that creators and developers can make a good living wage doing this kind of work to further help develop the metaverse.

3. Gaming

Gaming is how many people are going to step into the metaverse for the very first time. Gaming provides many of the most immersive experiences and is the biggest entertainment industry by far. Gaming in the Metaverse is going to span from immersive fantasy worlds to simple games found in the physical worlds such as chess.

Gaming in Meta allows you to go head-to-head with players from around the world, including things we’ve never been able to experience such as going surfing together or playing ping-pong. 

Meta is heavily investing in structuring a healthy VR and AR ecosystem so that the game studios can continue to develop new immersive games. 

The metaverse is constantly evolving, that’s why one of the most important aspects of gaming in Meta is live-service games. These games launch updates and new downloadable content regularly, ensuring games can continue to build and support their communities.

Population One is one example of a live-service game only possible in VR. Since its launch in 2020, it has become one of the highest-earning games on Quest and continues to launch new worlds and experiences. The future of gaming is going to be forever evolved thanks to VR technology. 

I think it’s safe to say that with brands like Meta investing heavily into gaming, the industry will evolve at an extremely fast pace like never before.

4. Exercise

Many of us already use VR technology such as Oculus to get our daily workouts in. VR allows you to exercise in completely new ways. You can workout in different worlds, and even have some competition thanks to artificial intelligence. Or you can join your friends for a team experience.

Fitness in the metaverse lets you have a completely immersive and full workout anywhere in the world, all from the comfort of your own home.

5. Work Efficiency

Over the past few years, more and more people are working remotely from home, and it’s likely that it will continue to stay that way. That being said, we are going to need better tools to complete our work tasks efficiently.

That’s where Meta comes in. Imagine if you could be at the office without your daily commute. VR technology gives you the ability to still have that sense of presence and shared physical space. Additionally, you can have your entire work set up all at the palm of your hands without the need for a computer.

You can even tune out the noise and visit a relaxing place such as the beach, in order to get more work done. Then, once you’re finished, you can simply teleport back to your office for your presentation.

All of this means you spend less time in traffic, fewer flights to go to meetings, and more opportunities for daily interactions and networking, ultimately increasing productivity and efficiency across the world.

6. Education

In the metaverse, not only will you have the ability to teleport to any place, but any time as well. Imagine being able to teleport to Ancient Rome where you are able to hear the sounds of the streets, visit the markets, and get a sense of life over 2000 years ago. This is now possible thanks to the metaverse.

Let’s say you’re a med student, you can now learn new techniques and surgery first hand until you get it right, through the use of VR.

In order to get to a point where we can use the metaverse to learn in a virtual environment, Meta has set aside $150 million to train the next generation of creators to build immersive learning content and increase access to devices. Even more so, Meta is helping more creators make a living building AR effects, Meta is establishing a professional curriculum and certification process.

7. Commerce

Meta is taking a different approach to internet commerce. Meta wants to serve as many people as possible, which means working to make their services cost less, not more. Meta has done this already by making their mobile apps free, and by offering creator and commerce tools at cost or with modest fees to enable as much creation and commerce as possible, and it has worked.

Meta is currently supported by billions of people, and hosts hundreds of millions of businesses on their platform, all encompassed in a rapidly growing ecosystem and business structure. That’s the approach the Meta plans to take to help build out the metaverse as well.

To keep investing in the future of the metaverse, Meta will need to keep some fees higher to make sure they can maintain a profitable business. On top of that, Meta plans to invest billions of dollars for years to come, all before the metaverse reaches scale.

Meta’s goal in the next decade is to help the metaverse reach over a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers.

Mark Zuckerberg stated that Meta is fully committed to this goal. It is the next chapter for their brand and they believe in the internet overall, and their track record proves that they will continue to grow the community, the creator economy, and the developer ecosystem moving forward.

In the sections below you’ll learn more about why this is so significant and what the future may hold for Meta, which represents an up-and-coming investment opportunity.

What does the future of Meta look like?

Meta is a company that focuses on connecting people and allowing everyone to connect with each other. Although Facebook was known largely as a social media platform, Mark’s goal has always been to create technology that connects people, and the metaverse is the next frontier.

The future of Meta will allow you to experience an entirely new and immersive way of connecting with others in the metaverse. This means that you won’t need to use Facebook to use Meta’s other services. Over time, Mark aims to make Meta known as the metaverse company.

Here are some of Meta’s initial plans to further the development of Meta as the metaverse brand.

Building Meta

The first phase of the project will involve building the Metaverse. At least 10,000 workers from within the European Union (no mention of North America, yet) will be hired to build the metaverse in the next 5 years. These highly-skilled workers will help make sure that all security loopholes and bugs are fixed before the general public has access to the platform.

Governance

The primary concern with metaverses is the potential for “bad actors” to find their way into the platform. The same security threats that exist on the internet and social media will most certainly also exist on metaverse platforms. 

There are several different proposals for how metaverses will be governed, so that all may be able to access the wonders of a closely-safeguarded virtual world. Harvard University even offers a course in virtual world governance, further underlying the sense of anticipation that metaverse ambitions will come to fruition soon.

Mark’s goals for Meta are extremely ambitious, so it’s important to understand this will all take time and patience as things are optimized.

What’s needed to access Meta?

Traditionally being fully immersed in virtual reality has required the purchase of expensive technologies, such as VR headsets.

In order to access the Meta platform, all you will need is an internet connection and a virtual reality device of some sort. For now, Oculus 2 is the preferred VR headset for exploring the metaverse. The metaverse, however, should be relatively easy to access for several reasons:

• Wide compatibility with devices: Meta plans on running Meta on a diversity of electronic devices, to ensure that processing can handle the platform.
  
• VR technology is becoming more affordable: Quality VR headsets, such as the Oculus Quest 2, are cheaper than the leading game consoles.
  
• No Monopolies On The Metaverse: The metaverse will exist as a global community of interconnected networks, much like the internet.

Moreover, as technology advances, the cost to create this tech will become more affordable for both the creators and consumers. In fact, I believe that it is in Meta’s best interest to ensure that the barrier of entry is extremely low for accessing the Meta metaverse economy.

Final thoughts

Meta will be a platform within the global metaverse. Participants will be able to create 3D avatars and interact with others in a virtual reality world far more advanced than popular open-world video games. This could be a major windfall for investors, merchants, and players as described in this article.

I believe that Meta will be known as one of the largest and most powerful metaverse brands in the world, but only time will tell. What do you think? Will Meta be the one to bring the masses to the metaverse universe?