Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, introduced the metaverse in 2021 and pitched it as the future of the internet, where people could socialize and play games in an online world with the help of a virtual reality headset.
At Fortune Magazine’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Park City, Metaverse Vice President Vishal Shah said the product is entering a new phase.
“I think the metaverse hype is dead,” Shah said. “I think we were in a hype cycle like any new thing. And those that invested last year, because it was the hype - yeah, they lost conviction. We didn’t invest for the hype. We have been investing in the space for years, the Oculus acquisition was 2014. We believe in this next generation of computing, and we’re invested in it for the long haul.”
To pair with its virtual reality headsets, Meta launched Horizon Worlds, a free online world where users can create their own avatar and visit comedy clubs, shoot hoops on a basketball court, and talk to others.
Shah said his team is gradually perfecting Horizon Worlds, and is focused on user retention, not growth.
“I think it was right to launch the product, because you can only iterate on something inside the building for so long,” he said. “You gotta put it out there and get people to use it. So I think that was the right call. But then you have to iterate and say, ‘OK, what’s working? What isn’t?’ There were some parts of the product that had a lot of friction that weren’t working. So we said, we have to stop shipping new things and get the core to be healthy.”
He mentioned Tuesday that over 1 billion people have created avatars for Horizon Worlds so far. A common criticism of those virtual avatars is that they don’t have legs, but Shah said that will change by the end of the year.
One of the trends he said the company is noticing about their product is that people are increasingly buying it for fitness purposes.
“What I think is really interesting there is it skews more female, it skews older. And it’s not just people who used to go to the gym, and now replace that with using a headset. It’s people who are uncomfortable going to the gym, who didn’t feel like they had a place to go to focus on their health. And now they can in the comfort of their homes at a price point that is far more affordable than other things that are out there.”
Meta’s cheapest headset is currently selling for $300 on the company’s website.
Despite Disney abandoning its metaverse plans, and Microsoft not pursuing virtual reality, tech giant Apple recently announced that it's launching its own headset device.
While there is no intention to launch an online space similar to Horizon Worlds, Apple’s headset will allow people to blend digital content, like internet browsers and text messages, with the outside world.
Shah said Apple entering the metaverse market is overall a good thing.
“I think it’s actually really, really great that more people are investing in this space,” he said. “I genuinely mean that - it brings more validation to the overall portfolio of investment, more developers focused on building here, good for consumers, because at the end of the day, more choice and more competition makes better products. Now that said, I think we are approaching the space differently. Our vision is to build a metaverse for everyone, not just for a few.”
Apple’s headset, the “Vision Pro,” will hit the market at $3,500 early next year.
