FTX CEO gives his thoughts on Mark Zuckerberg's intent to pump $10B/year into Meta

When the avatar for Meta's Horizon Worlds VR platform was unveiled, speculations about Zuckerberg's $100 billion Metaverse venture began to swirl

By Shashank Bhardwaj

Published: Oct 31, 2022 03:38:22 PM IST

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Over a year had passed since October 28, 2021, when social media juggernaut Facebook changed its name to Meta at the Facebook Connect conference.

The company's rising ambitions to move beyond social media and into the virtual worlds of Web3, crypto, NFTs, and the Metaverse—where users are likely to spend more of their time for both work and play—were reflected in the name change.

Renaming Facebook to Meta was Mark Zuckerberg's most recent attempt to keep control of the Web3 social media environment, specifically the Metaverse. As Meta celebrated one year since the makeover, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the CEO of the crypto exchange FTX, gave his thoughts on the rebranding and what it means for the future of Meta.

The CEO of Meta revealed the avatar for the Horizon Worlds VR platform, which sparked rumours regarding Mark Zuckerberg's $100 billion Metaverse project. Even while each iteration of the Zuckerberg avatar was more visually beautiful than before, internet memes were created around later iterations.

However, the tech giant is still moving on with its venture into Web3 and other initiatives like artificial intelligence. Zuckerberg stated on the call that the firm "should keep investing heavily in these areas" and that "we're on the right track with these investments."

More recent rivals like TikTok, according to Bankman-Fried, had no impact on Facebook's expansion. The corporation "stopped growing because, well, there was no more room to grow," he countered.

SBF believed that Facebook was using the change to Meta as a diversionary strategy to enhance its reputation. Additionally, the deed would back up Meta's assertion that it would be successful in making a sizable profit.

He called attention to "the vague Meta guidance" and the investors' choice to invest $10 billion annually in the Metaverse. The plan by Zuckerberg to invest $10 billion annually strengthens his case for believing in the Metaverse.

His last statement reiterated that Facebook had already triumphed by outpacing all other social networking platforms to become the most popular. So what follows? Start putting Social Media 3.0 together, advised SBF.

To combat the increased absenteeism in Japan, the city of Toda, Saitama, implemented a metaverse-schooling programme that allows kids to roam the campus and learn in virtual classrooms.

During a virtual event on October 11, the firm presented the Meta Quest Pro, its virtual reality headset, from its alliance with Microsoft and a new computing platform, Reality Labs.

Shashank is founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist.