Posts Tagged: Meta’s
Meta’s Reality labs had its best quarter, but still lost more than $4 billion
Reality Labs, Meta’s division for AR, VR and the metaverse, just had its best quarter yet despite continuing its multibillion-dollar losing streak. Reality Labs generated more than $ 1 billion in revenue during the final quarter of 2023 thanks to its Quest headsets and the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
While crossing $ 1 billion in revenue is a new milestone for the company’s metaverse group, it’s still expected to continue racking up massive losses for the foreseeable future. Reality Labs lost $ 4.6 billion in the quarter, and more than $ 16 billion in 2023. Meta CFO Susan Li said that these losses are expected to “increase meaningfully year-over-year due to our ongoing product development efforts in augmented reality/virtual reality and our investments to further scale our ecosystem.”
The fourth-quarter, which encompasses the holiday shopping season, has typically been when reality does the best. During a call with analysts, Mark Zuckerberg suggested that the company’s smart glasses had done particularly well, saying that Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica was “planning on making more [smart glasses] than we’d both expected due to high demand.” He added that both Quest 2 and Quest 3 were “performing well,” calling Quest 3 the “most popular mixed reality device.”
Reality Labs aside, Meta had a strong quarter, reporting $ 40.1 billion to close out 2023, bringing its total revenue for the year to just under $ 135 billion. Facebook’s user base also grew to 2.1 billion daily active users (DAUs). Meta CFO Susan Li said that the company was “transitioning away” from sharing the metric and would no longer report on Facebook’s daily or monthly active users or its “family monthly active people.”
The company had shared that it would eventually stop reporting user numbers back in 2019 as Facebook’s growth began to slow. But the change shows how Facebook’s position in the company’s “family of apps” has changed in recent years. A report from Pew Research earlier this week found that Instagram is continuing to grow in the US while Facebook use remains flat.
Meta’s newest app, Threads, is still growing, however. Zuckerberg said the service has 130 million monthly users, up from “just under” 100 million last fall. “Threads now has more people actively using it today than it did during its initial launch peak,” Zuckerberg said, referring to the app’s initial, but short-lived, surge in growth.
Zuckerberg also talked more about his newly-stated ambition to create artificial general intelligence, or AGI at Meta, saying it would be the “theme” of the company’s product work going forward. “This next generation of services requires building full general intelligence,” he said. “It’s clear that we’re going to need our models to be able to reason, plan, code, remember and many other cognitive abilities in order to provide the best versions of the services that we envision.”
The Meta CEO also indicated the company would be unlikely to offer any of its apps in alternative app stores in Europe, following Apple’s controversial new developer policies. “The way that they’ve implemented it, I would be very surprised if any developer chose to go into the alternative app stores,” he said. “They’ve made it so onerous, and I think so at odds with the intent of what the EU regulation was, that I think it’s just going to be very difficult for anyone, including ourselves, to really seriously entertain.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-reality-labs-had-its-best-quarter-but-still-lost-4-billion-231135719.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Meta’s Oversight Board will weigh in on ‘altered’ Facebook video of Joe Biden
Meta’s Oversight Board is set to take on a new high-profile case ahead of next year’s presidential election. The board said it planned to announce a case involving a user appeal related to an “altered” video of President Joe Biden. The board didn’t disclose specifics of the case, which it said would be announced formally “in the coming days,” but suggested it will touch on policies that could have far-reaching implications for Meta.
“In the coming days the Oversight Board will announce a new case regarding a user-appeal to remove an altered video of President Joe Biden on Facebook,” the Oversight Board said in a statement. “This case will examine issues related to manipulated media on Meta’s platforms and the company’s policies on misinformation, especially around elections.”
While neither Meta or the Oversight Board has shared details about the video in question, the case could further shape the social network’s policies around AI-generated or otherwise manipulated media. Even before the rise of generative AI tools that make it easier than ever to create fake videos of public figures, Meta has taken heat over its response to suggestively edited videos of politicians. In 2019, the company declined to remove an edited clip that falsely claimed then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi was “drunk.”
The incident prompted the company’s current policy that bars AI-generated deepfakes, but allows some other types of edited videos to remain up. Over the last year, fact checkers have regularly debunked deceptively-edited videos of Joe Biden that often spread widely on Facebook and Instagram.
It’s not the first time the Oversight Board has weighed in on a case involving a head of state, The board previously got involved in Meta’s suspension of Donald Trump, and recently recommended Meta suspend the former prime minister of Cambodia (Meta ultimately declined to do so). When the Oversight Board agrees to a case, Meta is only required to implement the board’s decision for the specific Facebook or Instagram post in question. The board also makes a number of policy suggestions, which Meta is free to ignore, though it must provide written responses.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-oversight-board-will-weigh-in-on-altered-facebook-video-of-joe-biden-181008196.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Meta’s avatars finally grow some legs
It's been nearly a year since Meta announced at Connect 2022 that it would give its weird Caspar the Friendly Ghost-esque metaverse avatars some legs to make them appear slightly more human. The day of reckoning is almost upon us as Quest Home avatars now sport extra limbs in the latest beta version of the Quest software.
You won't see legs on your avatar when you look down, as UploadVR points out. They'll only be visible in third-person or when you're looking at a virtual mirror (much like in many first-person shooter games). This makes sense, as there's no leg tracking option on any current consumer virtual reality system. It means Meta doesn't have to worry too much about having accurate leg animations instead of, I don't know, wacky QWOP-style physics?
In addition, it seems your avatar's legs won't crouch in third-person view when you bend your knees or sit down. That could make things a little awkward when you're trying to maintain eye contact (as much as that's possible in VR spaces) with another user.
Meta Quest v57 PTC finally adds legs to your Meta avatar 😀 pic.twitter.com/3dzuuppp6e
— Luna (@Lunayian) August 29, 2023
The legs are not in the VR version of Horizon Worlds as yet, though you should see them in the mobile and web versions if you're one of the folks testing those. Curiously, Meta said last year that "legs will roll out to Worlds first" before making their way to other avatar-friendly experiences. UploadVR also notes that Meta hasn't publicly updated its software development kit for avatars, so external developers using that toolset can't play around with legs in the company's virtual spaces yet either.
This could all come to a head next month when this year's Meta Connect takes place. Perhaps the company will have more to say about its virtual legs then. One thing we know for sure about the event is that Meta will reveal much more about the Quest 3.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-avatars-finally-grow-some-legs-211016742.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Meta’s Threads is finally available on desktop (for some users)
If you consider the current state of Twitter (now called X) to be something of a cesspool then it’s likely that you’ve sought out Meta’s competing app call Threads in the hopes of finding a replacement. Perhaps launching a couple if weeks before it should have and thus being a little threadbare (not sorry) in […]
Come comment on this article: Meta’s Threads is finally available on desktop (for some users)
Meta’s Threads sent another app named Threads to the top of the App Store charts
When Instagram launched Threads on July 5th, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to Twitter for the first time in 11 years. The tweet, which did not include any text, saw Zuckerberg reference the Spider-Man pointing meme to take a jab at Elon Musk. It turns out the use of that meme was more apt than the Facebook founder could have imagined.
As highlighted by TechCrunch, the release of Instagram’s Threads translated into a boon for another app of the same name. Threads, a Slack alternative that has been around since 2019, saw more than 880,000 downloads on iOS between July 6th and July 12th, according to an estimate Data.ai shared with the outlet. Where previously it had “few downloads” before that period, Threads became the 52nd most downloaded App Store program globally. In a handful of European Union countries, including Germany, Spain and Italy, it even managed to crack the top 10. That might have something to do with the fact Instagram’s Threads isn’t available in the EU, and Meta has since started blocking people who try to access the service through a VPN.
— threads (@Threads) July 7, 2023
In addition, owing to the fact it owns threads.com, Threads (the Slack alternative) has enjoyed a “significant” increase in traffic to its website. In fact, the company has since added a badge to its frontpage that declares it’s “not associated with Instagram.” Over on Twitter, you’ll find a similar disclaimer. “We have no affiliation with Meta. But you’re welcome to stick around!” the company’s profile states.
Of course, Meta and Threads aren’t the first companies to employ the same branding. As TechCrunch notes, there are more than a few companies called Lightyear, including a solar electric vehicle startup, an online course platform and two separate fintech firms. Still, it’s funny a coincidence when you consider Threads, the workplace chat app, was co-founded by Rousseau Kazi, a former Facebook product manager. Oh, and Meta used to operate an Instagram companion app also confusingly named Threads. I suppose there’s no originality left in Silicon Valley.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-threads-sent-another-app-named-threads-to-the-top-of-the-app-store-charts-214007131.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Meta’s Twitter rival Threads won’t initially launch in the EU
Meta’s rival to Twitter called Threads, an Instagram app is set to launch tomorrow in the US and UK, but it may not come to the rest of Europe anytime soon. A Meta spokesperson told Ireland’s Data Protection Commission that the service will not be rolled out in the EU “at this point,” Independent.ie has reported.
Threads may not be launching in much of Europe due to more stringent data privacy requirements. The DPC is apparently not blocking the service — instead, it’s Meta that has “not yet prepared the service for a European launch outside the UK, which is not fully governed by GDPR or EU privacy rules,” according to the report.
The EU just hit Meta with a ruling that it must obtain consent from users before delivering personalized ads in the region. Prior to that, the company was hit with a €390 million EU fine (about $ 425 million) for not receiving consent before serving up such ads.
On top of that, in 2021, the DPC fined WhatsApp €225 million ($ 266.8 million at the time) or not providing enough detail on how it shares EU users’ data with Facebook. That could pose a problem for Threads in its current state, as it automatically imports data from Instagram, including advertising and behavior information, according to the policy listed on its iOS App Store page.
Threads is arriving amidst issues with Twitter like “rate limits” on tweets and degraded service for the power-user app Tweetdeck. Many of Twitter’s active users have been seeking an alternative with apps like Bluesky and Mastodon, but some see Threads as the most viable option due to Meta’s scale. That’s despite any reservations they may have about CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s track record on privacy and other issues.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-twitter-rival-threads-wont-initially-launch-in-the-eu-090314803.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Meta’s rumored Twitter competitor could launch as early as next month
Folks are spending less time on Twitter since Elon Musk bought the social media site last year, but there’s still plenty of demand for similar platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky. To that point, Meta has long been rumored to be building its own platform to rival Twitter. After months of speculation, there’s finally some details to go along with the rumors, according to digital media marketing expert Lia Haberman.
Haberman says the app is nearing completion and could launch as early as the end of June. She says that Meta has been meeting with select content creators to discuss the platform. One of these creators furnished Haberman with all kinds of info about the forthcoming app, calling it “Instagram for your thoughts.”
Based on a (somewhat blurry) example I got, Meta's new app looks a lot like Twitter.
So, could this take over all the Twitter screenshots we've been seeing on the Feed lately? Maybe.
It’s impossible to predict how audiences will respond but this could be an alternative. pic.twitter.com/xgQa1kUjCl
— Lia Haberman (@liahaberman) May 19, 2023
Instagram is the right word here, as it looks like the entire platform is built out of the popular photo-sharing social network. The decentralized app is said to work with current Instagram parameters, like usernames and passwords. So if you already have an Instagram account you should be able to sign right up and automatically sync up with your current followers. Your handle, bio and verification should all carry over from IG. Haberman says that even blocked Instagram accounts and hidden words transfer to the new platform.
This is also set to be a decentralized app that’ll integrate with other platforms like Mastodon, meaning you should be able to interact with users across multiple services without having to constantly switch between apps. The report indicates that text updates will be limited to 500 characters, which is less than an Instagram caption, but still plenty long enough to make a sarcastic comment or whatever.
You’ll likely be able to attach links, photos and videos up to five minutes long, which of course is much shorter than Twitter's recently launched two hour video-sharing feature. Just like Twitter and similar platforms, Meta’s service will have its own versions of likes, replies and reposts. Haberman got her hands on a leaked marketing slide that shows the app in action and, well, it looks a whole lot like Twitter, Bluesky and the rest, with a dash of Instagram's design scheme.
Back in March when these rumors first surfaced, Meta said it was indeed “exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates.” So this is coming, it’s just a matter of what it’ll look like and if it’ll be “the one” to dethrone Twitter. There's no name for the service yet, though within Meta it has a few codenames like Barcelona and P92.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-rumored-twitter-competitor-could-launch-as-early-as-next-month-181625616.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
FTC moves to block Meta’s purchase of ‘Supernatural’ VR workout app maker Within
The Federal Trade Commission has filed an antitrust suit against Meta in a bid to block it from buying Within Unlimited, the maker of the virtual reality workout app Supernatural. The agency accused the company and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg of "planning to expand Meta’s virtual reality empire with this attempt to illegally acquire a dedicated fitness app that proves the value of virtual reality to users."
The FTC claimed that Meta is "already a key player" at every level of the VR ecosystem. It said the company has the top-selling VR device (Meta Quest 2), a leading VR app store, "seven of the most successful developers and one of the best-selling apps of all time." The latter is likely referring to Beat Saber. Meta bought the maker of that rhythm game, Beat Games, in 2019.
“Instead of competing on the merits, Meta is trying to buy its way to the top,” John Newman, deputy director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. “Meta already owns a best-selling virtual reality fitness app and it had the capabilities to compete even more closely with Within’s popular Supernatural app. But Meta chose to buy market position instead of earning it on the merits. This is an illegal acquisition and we will pursue all appropriate relief.”
Meta announced its plan to buy Within last October. It was reported in December that the FTC was looking into the $ 400 million deal. Meta, of course, got into the VR market in the first place when it bought Oculus in 2014.
The FTC argues in the complaint that Meta has the resources and "reasonable probability" of entering the VR fitness market by building its own app. That approach, the agency claims, would "increase consumer choice, increase innovation, spur additional competition to attract the best employees, and yield other competitive benefits." Instead, if it were to buy Within, the FTC claims Meta would limit "future innovation and competitive rivalry" and says "that lessening of competition violates the antitrust laws."
“The FTC's case is based on ideology and speculation, not evidence. The idea that this acquisition would lead to anticompetitive outcomes in a dynamic space with as much entry and growth as online and connected fitness is simply not credible," a Meta spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. "By attacking this deal in a 3-2 vote, the FTC is sending a chilling message to anyone who wishes to innovate in VR. We are confident that our acquisition of Within will be good for people, developers and the VR space.”
The move will come as another blow to Meta's aim to become the leading metaverse player. The company has plowed billions into the effort, though in recent months it has dialed back some of its ambitions by cutting costs and reportedly shelving plans for some devices that were supposed to hook into its metaverse. This week, the company announced that it will increase the price of a Meta Quest 2 headset by $ 100 as of August 1st. News of the FTC's move to block the Within acquisition comes on the same day that Meta will report its earnings for the second quarter of 2022.
Mystery company buys Meta’s augmented reality tech
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