According to Bloomberg News, Mark Zuckerberg often used to say that when he introduced Facebook in a dorm room at Harvard, little did he know the impact the social network would have in the long run. As such, it was natural to commit errors, and these were made for sure.
The company’s effort to “metaverse” as per Zuckerberg is a do-over keeping in mind the vision of augmented reality and virtual reality worlds. Developing a product from zero should allow him to fix the errors committed for Facebook 1.0.
Back in the year 2004, little did mark Zuckerberg know that his product would have the capacity to “sabotage democracy”. But now he does know the same.
Along with the do-over will also come a new name. as per Bloomberg News, Facebook Inc, which is WhatsApp and Instagram’s parent app is no longer there. As it is known that Facebook Inc will now be known as Meta Platforms Inc, brushing off the toxicity related to the brand Facebook, how it mishandled extreme content, disinformation, hate speech, loose with personal data of users, and with an image of playing rather fast.
While presenting Thursday, Zuckerberg revealed his vision for metaverse, alongside new name, was dominantly Elon Musk rather than Steve Jobs. While Jobs keeps details of new products undeclared until they are ready to be sold after manufacturing, Musk is more into showing off ideas and innovations that he hopes will materialize one day.
According to Bloomberg News, Mark Zuckerberg in his presentation was manifesting ideas than his actual product.
But he also gave hints that although the presentation was of a different name, it is still the same as Facebook. As per Vishal Shah, the head of the company’s metaverse products stated that businesses and creators will be selling digital and physical products and services and experiences, and they will make use of ads so that the right customers can connect with the products they have created.
As such, advertising will continue to be the business model. But in Metaverse it could turn creepy. As of now, Facebook is aware of what attracts the attention of users, right from being aware of the time spent on the Instagram post of a model, the number of times you have clicked on the ad that shows treatment for hair loss, how likely you are to watch a video, and like.
If you are using a headset for virtual reality, Meta will also be able to track the things users are looking for, things you are looking at, observing facial expressions to work upon avatar, and just about how much of the data will be recorded by the company and be retained.
However, Bloomberg News also says that if you prefer to opt out, the company will either delete the data they have recorded or they might as well save it in another form anonymously.
Last year, the “responsible innovation principles” were unfolded by Facebook. These principles include being transparent and how the data is collected and used over time so that it does not come as a surprise for people.
According to the head of Meta’s public affairs and communications, it will take some time to create Metaverse so it will be possible for the regulators to keep pace. However, the company must earn the trust of the users.
This will be particularly crucial if Meta becomes a success in the changing landscape of competition. Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Google, Microsoft Inc, and Alphabet Inc are the five tech giants that will be competing directly for the first time while they are developing products of augmented and virtual reality.
The wealthiest among them Apple has made the safety and privacy of users a key element that differentiates it from the rest. Apple has made a better space for itself as far as a reputation for user safety is concerned. The sane has been acknowledged by Zuckerberg himself during the presentation Thursday.
