{"id":685,"date":"2021-11-19T04:11:59","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T03:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/19\/facebook-is-spending-billions-to-buy-up-the-metaverse-vox\/"},"modified":"2022-05-10T13:26:39","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T11:26:39","slug":"facebook-is-spending-billions-to-buy-up-the-metaverse-vox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/19\/facebook-is-spending-billions-to-buy-up-the-metaverse-vox\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook is spending billions to buy up the metaverse &#8211; Vox"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p>Can Mark Zuckerberg M&amp;A a new monopoly?<br \/>\nUncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing \u2014 and changing us.<\/p>\n<p>Of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/recode\/22762596\/how-to-fix-facebook-mark-zuckerberg\">many complaints about Facebook<\/a>, one comes through consistently: It\u2019s just too big. Which is why some critics and regulators want to make it smaller by forcing Mark Zuckerberg to unwind major acquisitions, like Instagram.<br \/>\nZuckerberg\u2019s response: Let\u2019s get bigger by buying <em>more<\/em> stuff.<br \/>\nAfter slowing down briefly in 2018, the year the Cambridge Analytica scandal erupted, Facebook has been steadily making large acquisitions \u2014 at least 21 in the last three years, per data service Pitchbook.<br \/>\nMany of the deals have been announced since December 2020, when the US government first filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company, accusing it of maintaining an illegal monopoly in social networking by buying or crushing competitors. The original suit and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/press-releases\/2021\/08\/ftc-alleges-facebook-resorted-illegal-buy-or-bury-scheme-crush\">revised complaint<\/a> are aimed at forcing Facebook to divest itself of both Instagram and WhatsApp.<br \/>\nIn the past couple years, Facebook\u2019s appetite for deals has run the gamut from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/buying-giphy-gives-facebook-new-window\/\">Giphy<\/a>, which lets you place funny GIFs in your social media posts, to <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2020\/11\/kustomer-to-join-facebook\/\">Kustomer<\/a>, a business software company for Facebook\u2019s corporate clients. Most of them, though, have been concentrated in one area: gaming and virtual reality. Which makes sense, since Zuckerberg has formally announced that gaming and virtual reality, bundled up in the expansive and hard-to-define rubric of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/recode\/2021\/10\/28\/22751315\/facebook-meta-what-is-metaverse\">the metaverse<\/a>,\u201d are the future of Facebook.<br \/>\nHence the company\u2019s name change to Meta. But what\u2019s more important is a promise that Facebook will move thousands of its employees into the effort, and plans to lose $10 billion on it this year alone, and much more \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/s21.q4cdn.com\/399680738\/files\/doc_financials\/2021\/q3\/FB-09.30.2021-Exhibit-99.1.pdf\">for the next several years<\/a>.\u201d<br \/>\nThe day after Facebook announced the name change, the company illustrated how it will spend some of that money: a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oculus.com\/blog\/within-to-join-meta\/\">deal to buy Within<\/a>, the company co-founded by VR pioneer Chris Milk, best known for its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getsupernatural.com\/\">Supernatural<\/a> workout app. People familiar with the transaction say Facebook paid more than $500 million for the company.<br \/>\nOther Metaverse-y deals announced this year include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/fbgaminghome\/blog\/welcome-unit-2-games\">Unit 2 Games<\/a>, which makes a \u201ccollaborative game creation platform\u201d called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crayta.com\/\">Crayta<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oculus.com\/blog\/welcoming-bigbox-vr-to-facebook\/\">Bigbox VR<\/a>, which makes a popular game for Facebook\u2019s Oculus VR goggles; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oculus.com\/blog\/welcoming-downpour-interactive-to-facebook\/\">Downpour Interactive<\/a>, another VR game-maker.<br \/>\nThose deals were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/6\/16\/22537795\/is-facebook-cornering-the-vr-market\">already raising eyebrows<\/a> before Facebook formally announced that they represented the future of the company. So what should we think of them now?<br \/>\nThat is: If you think 2021 Facebook needs to be broken up, in part to undo deals from the past like Instagram ($1 billion, 2012) and WhatsApp ($19 billion, 2014), then shouldn\u2019t you also be worried about deals Zuckerberg is doing now to build the 2031 version of his company?<br \/>\nA Facebook rep was happy to explain the difference to me: Unlike social networking a decade ago, Facebook isn\u2019t the leader in virtual reality\/augmented reality\/pick a name for it \u2014 lots of big, well-capitalized companies are spending a lot of time and money on it. And, as he has taken pains to point out, Zuckerberg imagines a future where Facebook simply happens to be one of several companies in the metaverse.<br \/>\nHere\u2019s the on-the-record statement the company gave Recode explaining the thesis:<br \/>\n\u201cInvesting in and building products that consumers want is the key to success. We cannot build the metaverse alone \u2014 collaboration with developers, creators, and experts will be critical. As we invest in the metaverse, we know that we face fierce competition from companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Snap, Sony, Roblox, Epic, and many others at every step of this journey.\u201d<br \/>\nTranslation: In the near term, Facebook is <em>happy<\/em> that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/5\/20\/22445481\/snap-spectacles-ar-augmented-reality-announced\">Snap keeps trying to sell sunglasses<\/a> that take videos and communicate with your phone because those are theoretical competitors to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ray-ban.com\/usa\/discover-ray-ban-stories\/clp\">Facebook\u2019s sunglasses<\/a> that take videos and communicate with your phone. And Facebook will also be happy next year, when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-01-21\/apple-s-first-vr-headset-to-be-niche-precursor-to-eventual-ar-glasses\">Apple is reportedly going to unveil its virtual reality headset<\/a>, because it will compete with Facebook\u2019s Oculus headsets.<br \/>\nBut it\u2019s also difficult to imagine that Facebook hopes Apple, Snap, and everyone else will be strong competitors forever. One of the main reasons Zuckerberg is interested in the metaverse, after all, is that he imagines it can give him a way to connect directly with his customers without having to depend on Apple and Google\u2019s phone duopoly.<br \/>\nFacebook\u2019s acquisition spree also highlights the difficulty antitrust regulators have in grappling with a fast-moving and unpredictable industry. Even the most aggressive antitrust measures we\u2019ve seen in the last few years are designed to go back in time and fix supposed errors.<br \/>\nOr they\u2019re focused on the now, like a <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/news\/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4619\">proposed law<\/a> that would prevent big platforms like Facebook from making big deals in industries they <em>currently<\/em> dominate.<br \/>\nSo how do you look into the future and guess that Facebook \u2014 not Google or Epic Games or Roblox or a startup you\u2019ve never heard of \u2014 will end up dominating the metaverse? Especially when the metaverse doesn\u2019t exist, may never end up existing, or could end up existing in some form very different than Zuckerberg, science fiction writers, and tech execs and investors imagine it might today?<br \/>\nI\u2019ve asked the Federal Trade Commission, the agency currently suing Facebook over its Instagram and WhatsApp deals, what they think of Facebook\u2019s metaverse ambitions and purchases, but I don\u2019t expect to hear back \u2014 in part because the agency doesn\u2019t want to talk about Facebook while it\u2019s in a long battle with Facebook, but also because it probably doesn\u2019t know what it thinks.<br \/>\nHere it\u2019s worth pointing out that the government doesn\u2019t necessarily have to win a lawsuit or pass a law to slow or stop Facebook\u2019s ambitions. Some tech investors I\u2019ve talked to say they believe Facebook is \u2014 temporarily, at least \u2014 out of the market for acquisitions related to social networking, simply because there\u2019s too much scrutiny and hassle.<br \/>\n\u201cIt just feels like it\u2019s going to be very hard for Facebook in particular to acquire anything in the social space,\u201d says a venture investor who has sold companies to Facebook in the past.<br \/>\nAnd that may apply not just to big-ticket acquisitions, but even tiny \u201cacqhires\u201d \u2014 deals for underwhelming companies made just to bring their engineers and other staff onto the Facebook payroll.<br \/>\nWashington has already signaled that it wants to pay more attention to small deals: In September, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/press-releases\/2021\/09\/ftc-report-on-unreported-acquisitions-by-biggest-tech-companies\">FTC released an analysis<\/a> of 616 transactions made by Facebook, Google, and other big tech companies over the last decade that weren\u2019t big enough to trigger regulatory oversight.<br \/>\nBut the report\u2019s existence makes it clear regulators think they should be scrutinizing more deals, not less. FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter made it even clearer: \u201cI think of serial acquisitions as a Pac-Man strategy,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/technology\/ftc-staff-present-findings-big-techs-smaller-acquisitions-2021-09-15\/\">she said when the report was released<\/a>. \u201cEach individual merger viewed independently may not seem to have significant impact, but the collective impact of hundreds of smaller acquisitions can lead to a monopolistic behavior.\u201d<br \/>\nYou can debate whether Facebook has a monopoly on social networking today \u2014 the company is delighted to point out the nearly overnight success of TikTok to argue that it doesn\u2019t. But there\u2019s zero question about its enormous wealth and power. The real question: Will we let it use those resources to extend its power into the future?<br \/>\n<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/vox.com\/pages\/support-now?itm_campaign=default&amp;itm_medium=article&amp;itm_source=article-footer\">Will you support Vox\u2019s explanatory journalism?<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nMillions turn to Vox to understand what\u2019s happening in the news. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all. <a href=\"http:\/\/vox.com\/pages\/support-now?itm_campaign=default&amp;itm_medium=article&amp;itm_source=article-footer\"> Please consider making a contribution to Vox today to help us keep our work free for all<\/a>.<br \/>\nCheck your inbox for a welcome email.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/recode\/22776461\/facebook-meta-metaverse-monopoly\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can Mark Zuckerberg M&amp;A a new monopoly? Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing \u2014 and changing us. Of the many complaints about Facebook, one comes through consistently: It\u2019s just too big. Which is why some critics and regulators want to make it smaller by forcing Mark Zuckerberg to unwind major acquisitions, like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4895,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions\/4895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}