The metaverse is Mark Zuckerberg’s dream, he aimed to replace the phone with a virtual reality among other things. But years later, the project is consuming billions of dollars and has yet to achieve its goal.
What is the metaverse? In 2021, Facebook was renamed Meta and the company’s focus shifted to the so-called metaverse. According to Bloomberg, Zuckerberg stated: “We will be the first metaverse, not Facebook.” In practice, it is a VR platform by Meta where people can work, play, and communicate with each other.
At the beginning of 2025, Meta made it clear, either Meta succeeds together or the company fails and goes down in history.
Since the beginning of 2021, the project is said to have incurred over 70 billion US dollars in losses, making it one of the largest loss-making endeavors in the tech industry according to Bloomberg.
Problems are reported to be primarily the lack of compelling content, errors in usage, and low user numbers. Even after years of development, the metaverse generally offers according to Fortune only niche content such as Horizon Worlds, a virtual playground. However, even these are not real alternatives to smartphones.
What the N-symbol on your phone means and how you can use the practical function is shown in the following video:
Budget cuts and layoffs are imminent
What consequences is Mark Zuckerberg considering? According to Bloomberg, budget cuts of 30 percent are on the way, and many employees could be laid off as early as January 2026.
The reduced budget is expected to affect all VR departments including hardware manufacturers of the Oculus Quest headsets, as well as software departments that manage, for example, Horizon Worlds.
Following the announcement, Meta shares rose by about 4 percent last Thursday, December 4, 2025, which could indicate approval from investors (via fortune.com). Investors have noted for years that the metaverse has too high costs without delivering significant results.
Artificial intelligence is in focus
What comes next? Meta does not want to shut down the metaverse, but the company’s resources should be directed to other projects.
Above all, artificial intelligences should be promoted. Investments could flow into the Ray-Ban AI glasses of the company as, according to Zuckerberg, their sales increased threefold last year (via uploadvr.com). However, young people are skeptical of the phone alternative. Many reject these glasses for good reasons.
Meta is thus increasingly focusing on AI. In the past, Meta has invested money in AI to deploy it more in the social media sector. The aim was to use AI to create targeted generated content for people: Mark Zuckerberg looks forward to pouring even more AI content into your social media feed
