TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app, has stolen young audiences from Meta’s core apps like Instagram and Facebook. Facebook’s Reality Labs division, which is building augmented and virtual reality products, has dragged down the company’s balance sheet the hardware unit lost nearly $3 billion in the first quarter alone.Īt the same time, Meta is grappling with privacy changes from Apple that have hampered its ability to measure the effectiveness of ads on iPhones. “If you have the cash, the engineers, the users and the conviction to take a swing at that, then you should.”īut the efforts are far from cheap. “It’s an existential bet on where people over the next decade will connect, express and identify with one another,” said Matthew Ball, a longtime tech executive and the author of a book on the metaverse. Zuckerberg has moved thousands of workers into different teams for the metaverse, training their focus on aspirational projects like hardware glasses, wearables and a new operating system for those devices. While she spent more than a decade building Facebook’s advertising systems, she was less interested in doing the same for the metaverse, people familiar with her plans have said. 2 for 14 years, said she would step down this fall. He promoted other loyalists, too, including Javier Olivan, the new chief operating officer Nick Clegg, who became president of global affairs and Guy Rosen, who took on a new role of chief information security officer. In October, he elevated a longtime friend and colleague, Andrew Bosworth, who is known as Boz, to chief technology officer, leading hardware efforts for the metaverse. “Teams will quickly drop other work to pivot to the issue at hand, and the pressure is intense to move fast to show progress.” “When Mark gets super focused on something, it becomes all hands on deck within the company,” said Katie Harbath, a former Facebook policy director and the founder of Anchor Change, a consulting firm that works on tech and democracy issues. In recent months, Meta’s profits have fallen and revenue has slowed as the company has spent lavishly on the metaverse and as the economic slowdown has hurt its advertising business. Competitors like TikTok, YouTube and Apple are bearing down.Īnd success is far from guaranteed. The company is staring into the barrel of a global recession. Zuckerberg is making these moves as Meta’s back is against the wall. The moment is reminiscent of other bet-the-company gambles, such as when Netflix killed off its DVD-mailing business last decade to focus on streaming. Across Silicon Valley, he and other executives who built what many refer to as Web 2.0 - a more social, app-focused version of the internet - are rethinking and upending their original vision after their platforms were plagued by privacy stumbles, toxic content and misinformation. Zuckerberg, 38, is trying to push his company away from its roots in social networking and center it on the immersive - and so far theoretical - world of the so-called metaverse. Managers have sent out memos to convey the seriousness of the approach - one, which was shared with The New York Times, had the title “Operating With Increased Intensity.” Those who are not on board are welcome to leave, he has said. In recent months, he has reined in spending, trimmed perks, reshuffled his leadership team and made it clear he would cut low-performing employees. Zuckerberg is setting a relentless pace as he steers his $450 billion company, which has been renamed Meta, into a new phase. Within days, the team unveiled an update to the Facebook app to better compete with a top rival, TikTok. Zuckerberg and the group pored over each slide. Some executives - who had to read a 122-page slide deck about the changes - were beginning to sweat at the unusual level of intensity, they said.įacebook’s leaders flew in from around the world for the summit, the people said, and Mr. Zuckerberg had sent his executives messages about the overhaul, pressing them to increase the velocity and execution of their work, people with knowledge of the matter said. On the agenda: a “work-athon” to discuss the road map for improving the main Facebook app, including a revamp that would change how users browse the service.įor weeks beforehand, Mr. SAN FRANCISCO - Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of the company formerly known as Facebook, called his top lieutenants for the social network to a last-minute meeting in the San Francisco Bay Area this month.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |