NYT Reports Internal Tumult in Meta Over Metaverse Plans -- Eerily Resembling What an Insider Told Me Last Year

Here's what a Facebook veteran with deep knowledge of Horizons told me about the project last July, shortly after the company announced that making the Metaverse would be its main focus:

"I think Facebook has the money and people to throw at the problem," as they put it to me, "but making 0-1 products as a large entity hasn't been one of Facebook's strong suits... it's been to acquire other products and integrate them into the Facebook ecosystem. With the average employee tenure being 2 years or so, and the need to expand teams at rapid rates, it's very difficult to make decisions and stick to a single vision because things are always changing."

"This [turnover] leads to teams at Facebook fast following on trends. You can see it when you look at Horizon and Rec Room, or when you listen to Instagram's new focus on video, referencing Tik Tok. So will they achieve the vision [Zuckerberg] paints? Maybe. But will it be executed in a way people choose it over say, Animal Crossing, or whatever new social game comes out? To be decided."

"[P]eople really just want that pay and glory," as this insider tells me. "When they realize it’s actually a hassle but good pay they go do other things if they are in demand. VR work is paid the highest in tech so people flock to it, but what they don’t realize is that they’re working on a currently isolating, limited tech, that you have to wear on your face, and they’re working for a company that they aren’t super proud to say they work at."

This is what the New York Times reported today:

The result has been internal disruption, according to nine current and former Meta employees, who were not authorized to speak publicly. While some workers were excited about Meta’s pivot, others questioned whether the company was hurtling into a new product without fixing issues such as misinformation and extremism on its social platforms. Workers were expected to adopt a positive attitude toward innovation or leave, one employee said, and some who disagreed with the new mission have departed...

Internal recruitment for the metaverse ramped up late last year, three Meta engineers said, with their managers mentioning job openings on metaverse-related teams in December and January. Others who didn’t get on board with the new mission left. One former employee said he had resigned after feeling that his work on Instagram would no longer be of value to the company; another said they did not think Meta was best placed for creating the metaverse and was searching for a job at a competitor...

[COO Cheryl Sandburg] said she was “excited” about the metaverse’s possibilities and told attendees to imagine the endless opportunities that would be available to people around the world, two employees who listened to the virtual meeting said. Many employees showed their enthusiasm using heart emojis. But in one private chat for engineers, which was reviewed by The Times, one employee wrote: “Who is the elephant in the room who is going to ask how all of it works? Not it.”

I'm kinda amused the NYT quoted that last part anonymously, when something very similar to it was said publicly by... Oculus CTO John Carmack. At Facebook's own conference:

(Metaverse comments start at around 14:44.)

Comments

[kikko]

Darned NYT paywall

[Kitty]

I don’t want any of the future that Zuck wants.