FTX CEO dissects Mark Zuckerberg's intent to pump $10B/year into Meta

Published at: Oct. 30, 2022

Facebook’s rebranding into Meta was Mark Zukerberg’s latest attempt to retain dominance in the social media world of Web3, specifically, the Metaverse. On the occasion of Meta completing one year on the rebrand, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the CEO of the crypto exchange FTX, shared his thoughts on the rebranding and what it means for the future of Meta.

Zuckerberg’s $100 billion Metaverse experiment first raised eyebrows when the CEO released the avatar for Meta’s Horizon Worlds VR platform. Subsequent releases of the Zuckerberg avatar fell prey to internet memes, although each new iteration seemed visually better than its predecessor.

According to Bankman-Fried, Facebook’s growth was not impacted by newer rivals such as TikTok. Rather, he argued that the company “stopped growing because, well, there was no more room to grow.”

SBF suspected that rebranding to Meta was a way for Facebook to improve its reputation through distraction. Moreover, the move would strengthen Meta’s narrative for generating high income upon its success.

However, SBF highlighted “the vague Meta guidance” and how the investors have decided to spend $10 billion per year in the Metaverse. The intent to infuse $10 billion yearly strengthens Zuckerberg’s position as a believer in the Metaverse.

On an end note, SBF reiterated that Facebook had already won by becoming the largest social media network. “So what's next? Start building Social Media 3.0,” concluded SBF.

Related: Facebook is on a quest to destroy the Metaverse and Web3

The city of Toda, Saitama, adopted a metaverse-schooling service to curb the rising absenteeism across Japan, allowing students to explore the campus and study in virtual classrooms.  

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