C_NCENTRATE #874: Disney homes, vibe check, Uber ambulances, VR home insurance hikes...+
THIS ISSUE OF C_NCENTRATE IS FREE THANKS TO TBD CONFERENCE
META SAYS IT HAS 300K MONTHLY METAVERSE USERS.
That's up 10x since December, not bad. Or is it? Well, context is king here. The numbers include Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues (a separate app for attending live events in VR that uses the same avatars and basic mechanics). Undoubtedly, Meta needs to keep beating the 'Metaverse is the betterverse' drum, but these numbers aren't thrilling yet. The main point, we don't know how many users fall into which product, but the problem goes deeper than that.
Second Life, even today, adds 300k new profiles every month, RecRoom and VRchat have 3-6m million users each. Aside from this, who are they? Hardcore users? Top-dippers? Young, old? Returning user data over time is needed to form more insights and judgement. Still, currently, we can say Meta's Metaverse is fairing as well as a 19-year-old Metaverse platform or Meta pushed a lot of users to log in to a new whizzy thing and may return or never return. Time will indeed tell. Early indications seem to show minimal interest. Meta also announced that 10,000 separate worlds had been built in Horizon Worlds, and the private Facebook group for creators has +20k members.
Metaverse expert Wagner James Au, is wary of Meta's approach: "When it comes to the broader Metaverse ecosystem, Meta is like a group of kids from rich families who want want to become an indie rock band, buy the best gear, rent out the biggest venues, hire a network of top promoters, ignore their uncles' advice even though they were producers and roadies for Nirvana and Silversun Pickups, and when the audience results are mediocre, the Rolling Stone headline is somehow: Indie Rock Is Dead."
Zuck and his Metamates have said having a headset isn't the only way people will experience the Metaverse. Still, phone apps don't offer anywhere near the same level of immersion or experience. Meta also controls their app store, and I can personally tell you they are pushing both apps hard. Expect the numbers to rise and the needed data to show success to be scattered and not openly available. Early issues seem to suggest that there's a lot more to learn.
SO WHAT?
__ DO __ Meta has poured money into the Metaverse (over a billion to date). Other companies would see this as a failure, but they are building something big and need to find a new revenue stream as their old ones are chipped away and curtailed. AR glasses are the interim here, and no one knows what different companies have up their sleeves right now. // __ DON'T __ Ignore the Xmas bump. The 10x user bump includes the Xmas bump. Whether Meta can keep that growth going when the world is beginning to open up, and Meta has pulled the ripcord on the biggest/busiest markets it controls is a big if. Some are saying 'no'; others are saying ‘not sure’.
Lyft and Uber might be your next ambulance. /4 mins
Meta has dropped out of the ten most valuable companies in the world. /2 mins
Apple Store workers are unionising. /4 mins
How to make people binge your content. /5 mins
A vibe shift is coming. /7 mins
// Do you know enough about the moves Amazon is making in retail, tech, content, healthcare, space? Now you do.
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Disney is now developing housing developments. /5 mins
How your tech defines the culture a company has. /8 mins
Your VR headset might be causing your insurance to go up. /4 mins
What really happens when you return goods you bought online. /5 mins
‘Zero click’ hacks are increasing and practically impossible to stop. /5 mins