Meta’s Layoffs Leave Metaverse Plans In Doubt

Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced another wave of 10,000 layoffs starting this month until May. The move is part of the company’s plans to have a “year of efficiency.” Other big plans include prioritizing AI tech instead of the Metaverse and “winding down” NFT features. But is the community pleased?

What Do Meta’s 10k Layoffs Mean for The Metaverse?

When Facebook became Meta in October 2021, the giant company created entire departments dedicated to Web3 innovation. Fast-forward to 2023, things don’t seem to align as founder Mark Zuckerberg may have planned.

Earlier today, the Meta CEO confirmed there would be 10,000 layoffs from the recruiting, tech, and business departments in the upcoming months. The concerning news comes after the company cut another 11,000 employees back in November 2022.

Accordingly, these tough decisions might be part of Meta’s “year of efficiency,” as Mark Zuckerberg described. During the same statement, the CEO also revealed the company would prioritize AI tech development instead of its alleged plans to grow the Metaverse.

In other words, Meta’s interest in the metaverse seems to have faded away. Instead, the global company now has its eyes on AI after the roaring success of language models such as ChatGPT. While this doesn’t mean that their Metaverse will disappear overnight, Meta might invest less and less into this area of its business.

How Are Meta’s NFT Plans Going to Evolve?

Part of Meta’s recent wave of changes also concerns their NFT agenda. On March 13th, the company’s Leading Commerce & FinTech Stephane Kasriel revealed the brand is less interested in NFTs:

“Across the company, we’re looking closely at what we prioritize to increase our focus. We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses,” he said in a tweet.

What could this mean? For starters, it means Instagram and Facebook will offer less support for NFT creators to share their projects via social media. Last year, Instagram (and then later Facebook) tested a new feature where NFT creators could share collectibles directly within the apps.

As a result, the Twitter NFT community quickly reacted to Kasriel’s message. Some users said the move was “short-sighted” and criticized the company’s decision.

From layoffs to cutting NFT app features, Meta definitely had an interesting start this year and it’s worth looking into the company next.

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