Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse keynote did nothing to address enormous skepticism and shows why the idea should have been an R&D project, not Meta's future

As Mark Zuckerberg spoke to the camera in a pre-recorded presentation on Tuesday to kick off Meta Platforms Inc.'s annual virtual reality conference …

Bloomberg 2022-10-12 Parmy Olson

Context & Ripple Effects

Meta entered its annual VR conference already facing the view that it was catching up to established metaverse-like platforms rather than defining a new category. The keynote deepened that concern: related coverage characterized its long VR pitch as an unusually hard sell.

The presentation also sharpened a strategic contradiction. Zuckerberg’s stated goal of an open, interoperable metaverse was being questioned alongside Meta’s reported reliance on corporate partnerships and case-by-case permissions.

First-order effects

Meta’s keynote leaves skepticism about making the metaverse the company’s central future-facing bet unaddressed, strengthening the argument for treating the work as R&D rather than a near-term corporate narrative.
Mark Zuckerberg’s interoperability message faces more scrutiny because the related coverage describes a more controlled approach to access and partnerships.

Second-order effects

Roblox, Steam VR and VRChat benefit from the comparison: Meta must demonstrate differentiation against platforms that the related coverage says already offer metaverse-like experiences.
Potential partners face a less straightforward proposition from Meta when “open” participation is paired with case-by-case permissions, making partnership terms central to its ecosystem pitch.

Third-order effects

If platform participants continue to equate openness with predictable access rather than partnership-led permissioning, metaverse competition will favor ecosystems with clearer interoperability rules over broad branding claims.
The episode points to a wider shift in which costly frontier-platform ambitions need to be validated as staged research programs before they can credibly anchor a company’s long-term strategy.

The trend: Metaverse strategy is moving from visionary positioning toward a test of whether platform owners can pair credible product differentiation with genuinely workable interoperability.

Discussion

Vox Shirin Ghaffary on x
Legs are finally coming to Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse
@ballmatthew Matthew Ball on x
#6 - Zuckerberg on motivations, video, TikTok, and what Meta needs to do and doesn't https://twitter.com/...
@ballmatthew Matthew Ball on x
#5 - Zuckerberg on Timing: “ I think that there's a difference between being 3-5 years ahead and being ten to 15 years ahead... I think 10-15 ahead is really tough. 3-5 years ahead is expensive, but I think you're also developing a lead and a real technological moat”
@ballmatthew Matthew Ball on x
#4 - Zuckerberg on risks of his big bet: “I try to think about the things that we can actually control. Is this going to be a big thing? I'm highly confident it will be a big thing. Timing I think is harder to predict” (Below is what I told NYT this week) https://www.nytimes.com/…
@ballmatthew Matthew Ball on x
Some highlights from @Stratechery's great Metaverse interview with both Satya Nadella and Mark Zuckerberg #1 - Nadella: Don't think of the Metaverse as excluding or substituting other devices, access models, or 2D interfaces https://stratechery.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@daniel_kyne Daniel Kyne on x
Today's post from @benthompson confirms what so many have got wrong about the Metaverse — the beachhead opportunity is enterprise, not consumer. As a market, the Metaverse looks more like the PC than the smartphone. https://stratechery.com/...
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
@stratechery @benthompson Did Nadella appear on a huge screen behind Zuckerberg to announce the partnership?
@keithdsouza Keith on x
He said, “help you be more present, more productive, more you.” as if being a human being you are missing on those traits 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ https://twitter.com/...
@quinnypig @quinnypig on x
“Yes, the idea is half-baked, and no, we can't articulate a strategy for it—BUT! We will have a tremendously disliked and thus completely ineffective spokesperson for the effort!” https://t.co/D8AT0aYsMo
@firstadopter Tae Kim on x
Can you imagine any manager in the world pitching their boss to spend $1,500 per headset, so they can have Microsoft Teams meetings in VR for 1-2 hours per charge? There is no product market fit here.
@parmy Parmy Olson on x
New column: Mark Zuckerberg's big reveal of avatars with more shading and a $1,499 headset that no one will buy underscores how much the metaverse should have been a neat little R&D project for Facebook. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@firstadopter Tae Kim on x
What the heck is Meta thinking? $1,500 VR headset with only 1-2 hour battery life to do office work? This is dead on arrival https://www.barrons.com/...
@verge @verge on x
In an exclusive interview with @alexeheath, Mark Zuckerberg explains how he plans to eventually profit from his metaverse bet: “The strategy overall is not to make money on the hardware but to make it so that it can help develop the ecosystem.” Watch more: https://www.youtube.com…
@anshelsag Anshel Sag on x
@BlakeDGross ... Using OpenXR alone is a huge difference... along with interoperability with other things. I just think the word ‘open’ doesn't really carry the same meaning anymore, After all, even Google isn't really open anymore.
@benadamsondxb Ben Adamson on x
@verge @alexeheath Of course it's not entirely altruistic. Apple is a business, not a charity. But in the case of privacy, users benefit significantly. If Apple does too, then both parties win. That said, Apple's ads, particularly in Apple News, are eyesores and really need some …
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
1. Meta is going after the work use case. They're adding Windows to the metaverse which validates this. 200m PCs are bought annually.
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
The Pro, even with its steep $1500 price tag, is not a profit-making device for Meta, Zuckerberg told me. It's going to be awhile before this stuff pays for itself and he seems ok with that https://twitter.com/...
@iumerraja Umer on x
@JoannaStern By “open ecosystems” he essentially means other platforms allowing Facebook track consumers all over Internet.
@counternotions Kontra on x
Fakebook CEO regurgitates complaints about about Apple: “Closed ecosystems focus on tight control and integration to create unique experiences and lock in. Although most of that value ends up flowing to the platform over time.” (I wonder if he ever used Instagram?)
@joannastern Joanna Stern on x
Zuck fires shots at Apple: “Closed ecosystems focus on tight control and integration to create unique experiences and lock in. Although most of that value ends up flowing to the platform over time. Open ecosystems create value and grow through many companies working together...”
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
I asked Zuckerberg if he had advice for Elon Musk buying Twitter. He didn't want to answer! https://twitter.com/...
@verge @verge on x
Mark Zuckerberg on Elon Musk possibly buying Twitter: “I think it's interesting as a saga... but I think even at this point, it's not actually clear what's going to happen.” Watch the exclusive interview: https://www.youtube.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
2. Mixed Reality in Quest Pro. It's the stepping stone to AR glasses. By including MR in the VR headsets, it allows Meta to seed the developer ecosystem before AR glasses launch in the coming years.
@mikeinberkeley Mike Silva on x
@JoannaStern I'm fine with a closed ecosystem that doesn't mine every aspect of my private life to extract value. Have fun with your headgear, Zuck.
@siuying Francis Chong on x
As if Facebook is an open ecosystem 🤷 https://twitter.com/...
@shiraovide Shira Ovide on x
Okay, the last 4 minutes were thoughtful, even/especially the diss of Apple without saying the word “Apple.”
@antranaut Alex Antra on x
@SamiFathi_ Zucks getting desperate and is struggling to keep it together while his company wains. It's almost like being a weirdo who wanted to rate girls hotness on the internet doesn't make you a good CEO.
@blakedgross Blake Gross on x
@anshelsag ... I'm not sure I really see how they would be more open than Apple, though they are certainly saying it.
@jonathanvanian Jonathan Vanian on x
Zuckerberg throwing shade on Apple: “Philosophically, we've always been about building in the open, we'd rather show the progress we're making and talk about the challenges we're still working through. We don't have all the answers, because some of them just don't exist yet.”
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
“in the US, one of the things that is interesting is that there's such a clear distinction between the private and public sectors... in most other countries around the world, those sectors are blended so much.. [in] China more so than any other country that I've been to” https://…
@samifathi_ Sami Fathi on x
Apple lives in Mark Zuckerberg's head for free. It's sad. He should find something else to whine about. https://twitter.com/...
@corbindavenport Corbin Davenport on x
Stop👏giving👏 big👏tech👏CEOs👏 softball👏interviews👏 https://twitter.com/...
@modestproposal1 @modestproposal1 on x
Zuckerberg explaining what a one way door looks like ["this is what we're here to do for the next decade — or however long it takes"]
@reckless Nilay Patel on x
Here's @alexeheath's exclusive Decoder interview with Mark Zuckerberg on the Quest Pro, his partnership with Microsoft (and his nascent competition with Apple), and how the metaverse is going. Video, too! https://t.co/xW7DV7eUQz
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
Last week, I visited Meta HQ to interview Mark Zuckerberg about the company's new Quest Pro headset, why he is still all in on the metaverse, competing with TikTok and Apple, why he enjoys “being doubted,” and more. Full podcast + video here: https://www.theverge.com/...
@moomanibe Aura on x
my litmus test for “is your VR metaverse app even remotely as good as vrchat” is “are furries holding actual exercise classes in it” https://twitter.com/...
@mgsiegler M.G. Siegler on x
Content aside, the fake conversation staging of #MetaConnect is just weird and awkward. I get the intent — humanize the company and the work in this space in particular — but it just feels forced with these memorized scripts. “Totally.”
@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
Also interesting Zuckerberg brings out Accenture CEO Julie Sweet as an example of a biz partnership that will make the metaverse work for enterprises. Lot of buzzwords. Remember, Meta/Facebook paid Accenture $500M a year to outsource content moderation. https://www.nytimes.com/..…
@shiraovide Shira Ovide on x
@reckless @CaseyNewton Can't wait to file my expenses in the metaverse.
@thedextriarchy Adi Robertson on x
Zuck is currently talking a big game about openness as a principle for VR computing, not-so-implicitly contrasting it with the mobile platforms Facebook grew up on.
@tina__nigro Tina Nigro on x
Meta wants to make a cool content creation experience for Spark AR in Quest Pro. We had worked on this for 6 years, and last year we even had the ability to export Minsar Studio projects to Spark. It was quite awesome...
@iansherr Ian Sherr on x
I'm not one to defend Meta these days, but I think we all can tell Mark Zuckerberg is not Steve Jobs or Tim Cook. Thirst or no, the tougher questions are whether this is the right tech at the right time, if Meta is the right company, and if they've found the killer app yet. https…
@geoffreyfowler Geoffrey A. Fowler on x
Exactly — they still have a ways to go to convince a mass market that this is a better way to work https://twitter.com/...
@kylebrussell Kyle Russell on x
They should probably save him for the tour of Reality Labs research at the end His preamble before the Quest Pro intro slowed things down too much
@anshelsag Anshel Sag on x
Some more thoughts since tweets aren't big enough: @Meta has clearly positioned the #QuestPro and Mixed reality as the development environment for #AR apps with the Spark AR announcement, and I think that's probably the biggest development we're seeing, even though its obvious.
@azeem Azeem Azhar on x
What a titanic waste of human effort. Better things to turn our attention to. https://twitter.com/...
@levynews Ari Levy on x
hard to overstate how much investors hate this stock right now .. $META https://twitter.com/...
@rachelmetz Rachel Metz on x
do people want to use VR/mixed reality headsets for work? i can see why it would be helpful for a select group of people, but i just don't understand how it becomes a mass-market work/all-purpose device like a laptop.
@joannastern Joanna Stern on x
One of these guys is worth $48 billion... [Zuckerberg's avatar next to the cowboy from Toy Story]
@kylebrussell Kyle Russell on x
Everyone in the Meta Connect keynote needed to rehearse a bit more and Zuck should get UCB improv coaches to help with modulating his energy
@kevinmarks Kevin Marks on x
@Techmeme @etherington Overscripted, under rehearsed, and really odd camera direction. I was never sure if the chroma keyed in execs were in the same room or not as the sight lines were all over the place. More 4th wall breaking than Fleabag.
@seflless Francois Laberge on x
If you don't think AR/VR is the most interesting thing in Interaction Design, Creative Tools, and Future of Work, you are crazy. Fine, generative AI could be argued as being near or more exciting, but give me one more thing that is in the same league as the 2 above!? https://twit…
@nickstatt Nick Statt on x
This is interesting! Meta is launching a “fitness accessory bundle” to market VR to people who use it for workouts and cardio. This is one area I can really see Meta/VR serving a dedicated market in a way almost no other device really can.
@karlbode Karl Bode on x
meta is building an amazing next-generation technology that's going to revolutionize everything, and to prove it here's another badly rendered simulacrum of our already charisma-challenged leader https://twitter.com/...
@anshelsag Anshel Sag on x
.@Accenture is now talking about its 700,000 employees and its remote workforce and using #VR to create virtual spaces where its employees can get together and have deployed over 60,000 Quest headsets. #MetaConnect2022 https://twitter.com/...
@kashhill @kashhill on x
I watched Meta Connect via my Quest 2 headset. Some counter said there were 5.7K people in the keynote theater at one point, though only 14 in my instance of it. Everyone in the theater rushed to the front to see Zuck's new avatar. It... did not look good.
@bridgetcarey Bridget Carey on x
I am really surprised how bad that experience was to try to watch the #metaconnect show in VR. They built a whole area and stage and screen called Meta Square for the event and... the keynote wasn't there. The event stage wasn't actually the stage the show was on? Why so messy?
@jank0 Janko Roettgers on x
Now talking open vs. closed ecosystems. Feels like a way to preempt Apple's headset moves.
@kevincow @kevincow on x
Zuckerberg's like, “Hey here's some actually pretty cool technology we're developing, presented in the most boring, cringey way we could come up with.”
@meathamski @meathamski on x
Mark Zuckerberg is basically Todd Howard of VR. Every time he speaks he just ignores the rest of VR as a whole and says he's got the most innovative idea, but its still behind by like 2 years. We have elbow tracking and shit now. Did they finally figure out foot tracking?!
@stephentotilo Stephen Totilo on x
NEWS: Meta is buying more game studios... ...including @Camouflaj , whose former PSVR exclusive Iron Man VR is coming to Quest ...and @ArmatureStudio who made RE4 VR and whose founders, uh, made a kind of game that would work reallllly well with first-person and goggles https://t…
@patbits Patrick Lucas Austin on x
remember sid from toy story? this is him now. feel old yet? https://twitter.com/...
@boztank Boz on x
We've made great strides to help advance the metaverse and the future of computing as we know it. It is still very early days, but the impact of a computing platform centered around people will be tremendously profound. A recap of today's announcements: https://tech.fb.com/...
@kentbye Kent Bye VoicesOfVR on x
1/ THREAD covering @Meta's #MetaConnect, which is starting now. I'll be covering all of the announcements, watching all new videos, & reading all of their press releases. They usually dump a ton of new info Follow here: https://www.facebook.com/... Or here: https://www.youtube.co…
@frontlinegamer Prince Tybalt on x
These are really, really good VR studio “gets” for Meta. Another PS Studios partner punched from under Sony's nose in Camoflaj. Did Meta ever finalise the deal for Twisted Pixel? https://twitter.com/...
@kimgrinfeder Kim Grinfeder on x
The Meta keynote is the most uninspiring keynote I have seen in a while.
@tha_rami Rami Ismail on x
Huge congratulations to the studios but also can we PLEASE STOP with all the acquisitions lately it's enough y'all own enough games studios https://twitter.com/...
@id_aa_carmack John Carmack on x
All the announcements are made. I'm going to talk in a couple hours and have a Q&A, but I can field questions here tonight. https://twitter.com/...
@susanlitv Susan Li on x
Ok these realistic #codec #Avatar are much more like real life 👍 More digestible #metaverse use cases for average folks #meta #CONNECT $meta https://twitter.com/...
@kelx_savage Kel Savage on x
@beeverOne @Meta Brooo!!! It's too maddd! The realism on the avatars by Codec is just 🤯🤯🤯 I have to talk about this shit soon else I'll just die from excitement
@selasieanani @selasieanani on x
Seeing the progress @Meta is making with codec avatars is nice! Looking forward to seeing how this changes how we work and play video games.
@ibrews Alex Coulombe on x
I prefer the codec avatars 1000% more. Give us this !! https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@thedextriarchy Adi Robertson on x
My final thought on the Quest Pro: until now I did not realize how much of my facial motion involves teeth and tongue, the two things its cameras don't track.

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