The Blubber

Per Reuters

Despite Meta's Mark Zuckerberg mentioning the metaverse less in recent talks, a study they commissioned showed that it could still result in a significant chunk of the US GDP. By 2035, the study estimates that it could contribute $760 billion, which would be equal to 2.4% of the country's GDP.

While the metaverse gained massive buzz when it was initially announced, Meta, which was previously known as Facebook, has been extremely bullish about it, spending billions of the company's money investing in the metaverse.

This ultimately resulted in the company's value plummetting as it failed to gain traction for its version of the metaverse called Horizon Worlds. As the company tries to bounce back, Mark Zuckerberg has started mentioning AI more.

When Meta's investments in the metaverse didn't go as planned, and the company missed its estimates and predictions, Zuckerberg decided to follow a different approach and focus more on cost-cutting and returning the spotlight to the company's other assets.

While Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp continued to make Meta money, Zuckerberg's bet on the metaverse continued to drain billions from the company. Because of this, the CEO had to change the company's strategy.

One thing that the company started to do was to lay off staff. In November, the company released the announcement that it would be letting go of 13% of its workforce.

This meant that 11,000 Meta employees could lose their jobs. After the announcement, Meta shares spiked by 4% during premarket trading.

In October, it was reported that Meta's Reality Labs business lost the company $3.7 billion alone during the third quarter. Reality Labs is Meta's division that was in charge of producing technology related to the metaverse.

During this period, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp made the company a $5.7 billion profit.

See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.

Other News:

• Mark Zuckerberg Confirmed 13% of Meta Staff Will Lose Their Jobs—Company to Lay Off Over 11,000 Employees
• The $META metaverse division, Reality Labs, lost $3.7 billion this quarter

Resources:

Reuters