About two weeks ago, Facebook reported that its daily active user base went down for the first time ever. Following this news, the share price of Meta plunged down by 40% year to date.

From the first quarter to the fourth quarter in 2021 Facebook lost about 1 million users.  This left the share prices of Meta plunging. This eventually wiped out $240 billion in market capitalization. Reportedly, this is marked as the largest one-day loss in US corporate history. This did eventually influence the net worth of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth. His networth during this news and crash was at $78.8 billion, which reportedly was down by $46 billion from early this year.

Thus, it has been coming down from its rank as one of the world’s largest and valuable company in terms of market cap.

A look back in to history:  Facebook recently became Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short.

People were expected to get more interested in the metaverse space because it will make it possible for people to interact with each other using AR/VR headsets, while enjoying rich features like avatars, being able to play games, have meetings, and so on – and all of these come with the touch of immersive experience.

For those who are new, the metaverse is a simulated digital environment which will provide for rich user interaction which will mimick the real-time world.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is envisioning a future where people will be able to work and play in virtual reality in the online space/world known as the metaverse.  There are a lot of small metaverses which are getting developed, where people will be able to meet, play games and even watch live shows.

Zuckerberg believes this to be the future of the internet.

Someone who tried to simplify discussions about Metaverse said, “It’s like Zoom or Google Meet on steroids. Instead of staring at a screen, you’d be actually seeing your family members across the table.”

Meta launched meeting software for companies known as Horizon Workrooms, which were meant to be used to Oculus VR headsets.  The cost of the headsets is at 300 USD; thus, it is out of reach for the vast majority.  Those who will be able to afford these costs will be able to engage in the meetings using avatars and they will be able to flip between different virtual world created by different companies.

So, users need to be using the VR headset to be transported to the virtual environment.  They can use customizable avatars to meet with friends, share office spaces, view AR artwork, and even build new worlds from the ground up.

Details about data privacy is not yet out. There have been past controversies about the way Facebook handles user data.  Thus, there are concerns about how meta will handle privacy – businesses do not prefer to have their data sold or stolen or leaked though.