I Tried The Metaverse, and It’s None Of Facebook’s Business
I’ve been using ‘ the Metaverse’ for a week and it’s interesting to me, but useless to Facebook. There’s definitely a business in there, but it’s not Facebook’s business. Meta certainly cannot deliver the outsized returns their investors expect.
Facebook’s Business Model
The Facebook business model is a Marxist nightmare. Users contribute their own capital and labor to produce content which Facebook monetizes. It’s almost pure profit.
Whenever you share a photo, video, or any content, you are doing work for Facebook. Even if you just use WhatsApp, you’re generating lots of data. Ordinary people, celebrities, and companies all put a lot of effort into producing content for Facebook. This is all free social labor that Facebook sells ads on top of. It’s immensely valuable.
Users also bring their own tools (capital equipment). Your own computer, smartphone, camera, etc. Companies bring entire production studios. Celebrities and ordinary people alike bring their own social capital.
Facebook captures all this free labor and capital and sells advertising on top of it. It’s a great business. It’s like a newspaper that prints, circulates, and markets itself.
This business model also has fuck-all to do with the Metaverse.