What Zuckerberg Got Wrong With the Metaverse

Dan Newman, Principal Analyst & Founding Partner, of Futurum Research gives his hot take on what Mark Zuckerberg got wrong with the launch of the Metaverse.

Dan’s Thoughts:

Mark Zuckerberg didn’t get much right this past year. The whole meta debacle was a big failure, but not because companies don’t need to make big bets. It’s because he bet everything while not focusing on that core product. Companies like Alphabet over and over again have made investments in big audacious projects, but they never got away from the core business. Alphabet still understands its search. AWS is focused on its cloud business. That’s where its opting comes from. For meta, it went all in on this 10-year vision, and in the meantime, TikTok was taking customers away. It was losing its core audience.

It had already hurt the trust of many of its customers because of what’s gone on with, privacy, the elections, and moderation. Some of the same things are going on, with Elon Musk and overall the shedding of so many employees in such a short period of time. Staying away from doing that has created a lot of uncertainty in the long run.

For Meta and Facebook, I think he needs to get back to the core business, focus on making money, and then reinvest those dollars and ensure the company has a long-term strategy. And maybe it’s the metaverse, but it can’t be just the metaverse.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

Radar
Physical Retail’s Next Infrastructure Layer: Item-Level Intelligence with Radar
June 4, 2026

Physical retail is under pressure to become as measurable and responsive as e-commerce. While retailers have spent years optimizing digital channels with real-time data, store teams have often had to make decisions with incomplete inventory visibility and delayed operational signals. That gap matters because stores still account for 80% of U.S. retail sales, making…

Read More
Healthcare in Pakistan
From Institutional Excellence to Population-Level Access: How Pakistan Can Bridge Its Healthcare Divide
June 1, 2026

Healthcare systems are under pressure almost everywhere, but the strain is especially visible in lower-resource settings where demand is rising faster than infrastructure. In Pakistan, that pressure is playing out across a system that has to serve more than 250 million people with limited public investment. Public health spending remains below 1% of GDP,…

Read More
Engineering
Scaling Experiential Learning in the Curriculum: How Iron Range Engineering Transformed Engineering Education
June 1, 2026

Engineering has transformed nearly every part of modern life, from the phones in our pockets to the systems powering global industry. But the way engineers are educated has often moved far more slowly than the profession itself. Employers are asking for graduates who can navigate ambiguity, communicate across teams, and contribute meaningfully from the…

Read More
vascular surgeon
When Geography Meets Purpose: How One Move Reshaped a Vascular Surgeon’s Career
May 28, 2026

Medicine isn’t what it used to be—not for the people practicing it. Independent physicians are becoming the exception, not the norm, as more doctors move into hospital systems, corporate groups, and academic networks. At the same time, the pipeline of specialists isn’t keeping pace with growing patient needs, particularly in complex fields like vascular…

Read More