A study by Revelio Labs showed job postings which made reference to the “Metaverse” fell by 81% from April to June in 2022.
Although portrayed as the next big thing in tech, which would revolutionize how businesses conducted meetings and interacted, as well as provide a virtual entertainment space right out of the story for Ready Player One, the Metaverse was hobbled by a slow start and practical stumbles, as promised photorealistic full body avatars ending up as pixelated floating disembodied upper bodies, and entertainment spaces devolving into unpoliced spaces for virtual sexual assaults and other illicit behaviors.
Now as a looming recession combines with one of the toughest quarters for Big Tech in years, most big tech companies have responded to the disappointing earnings with hiring slowdowns, freezes, layoffs, and shuttering of speculative projects.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had announced the company was facing “fierce” headwinds and would cut hiring plans and encourage less productive employees to leave by making their jobs unpleasant. Google is following a similar path. Even Apple, which is faring better than most, saw CEO Tim Cook said the company was now going to hire in a more “deliberate way.”
At present the Metaverse is still in the theoretical stage from a monetization perspective. Although some believe it will save businesses money to allow them to conduct certain functions in a virtual environment rather than have to rent real world space to conduct the same interactions in person, and while those developing the entertainment space believe people will prefer the more vivid environment that can be presented in the virtual environment compared to the real world, there are no monetization channels available at present. Moreover, it is not clear for how long the technology will require investment before a monetizable product can be offered to the public.
In this business environment companies are choosing to focus on monetizable products over long term investments of uncertain profitability.
