Remember when “metaverse” was the buzzword everyone was either hyping or mocking? Meta’s still plugging away at it, refining VR headsets and virtual platforms. While user adoption hasn’t skyrocketed overnight, I’m noticing more signs of real-world use cases—particularly in education, remote collaboration, and training simulations.
Axios recently ran a piece on several Fortune 500 companies trialing VR for onboarding and employee training. If Meta can capture that enterprise market, it could offset weaker consumer adoption. Selling a few thousand headsets to a corporate client can be more lucrative than trying to woo individual gamers one by one.
Financially, Meta’s ad business is still the cash cow, though it’s faced headwinds from Apple’s privacy changes and growing competition. But the company’s pivot to short-form video (Reels) and new ad formats seems to be stabilizing revenue. It might not be the rocket growth we saw in Facebook’s early days, but it’s enough to keep the lights on while they invest in the metaverse.
As a shareholder, I’m willing to endure the growing pains. The future might be a fully fleshed-out metaverse or something simpler, but the underlying technology—VR, AR, immersive social—isn’t going anywhere. If Meta can stay focused on delivering value (and not just hype), the next few years could validate this bold pivot.