Tag: Zuckerberg

Meta offers lucrative pay packages for metaverse developers

by Blockchain News

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has been actively pursuing expansion into the metaverse, despite facing challenges and significant losses. The company’s metaverse-building division, Reality Labs, reportedly lost a staggering $13.7 billion in 2022, the largest yearly loss recorded for the division. Despite this setback, Meta has continued to offer lucrative pay packages to its metaverse developers, with compensation ranging from $600,000 to almost $1 million, according to anonymous sources familiar with the matter, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The move to attract top talent to work on its virtual reality suite comes at a time when Meta has been facing legal challenges. The company was served with a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission against Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in an attempt to block “its ultimate goal of owning the entire ‘metaverse.'” However, a judge in the United States approved Meta’s acquisition of a virtual reality company at the beginning of February 2023, indicating the company’s commitment to its long-term vision for the metaverse.

Despite concerns raised by U.S. senators in a letter addressed to Zuckerberg urging the Meta CEO not to allow teenagers access to the metaverse platform Horizon Worlds, citing “serious risks” and a “digital space rife with potential harms,” Zuckerberg has remained committed to the company’s vision for the metaverse.

Meta’s recent decision to slowly stop its support for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Facebook and Instagram was made to “focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses,” according to the head of commerce and financial technologies at Meta in a tweet on March 13. The move may be a signal that the company is exploring other ways to monetize its products and services, in addition to NFTs.

As Meta continues to invest in the development of the metaverse, the company’s ability to attract and retain top talent will be crucial to its success. With salaries ranging from $600,000 to almost $1 million, the company is offering its metaverse developers some of the most competitive compensation packages in the industry. Despite significant losses, Meta’s commitment to its vision for the metaverse remains steadfast, and it will be interesting to see how the company navigates the legal and regulatory challenges that lie ahead.

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Majority of US consumers say no to Meta owning metaverse data: Survey

by Cointelegraph

A survey of 1,000 United States consumers around growing interest in the metaverse has revealed some interesting results. 

In a survey commissioned by nonfungible token and metaverse infrastructure provider Advokate Group, 87% of respondents preferred a decentralized metaverse on a blockchain over some of the mega projects planned by tech giants. This became more evident when 77% of the respondents shared concerns over Facebook’s entry into the metaverse, especially since it owns users’ metaverse data.

Facebook’s tainted past with mismanagement of private user data has already dismantled its early plans of launching a stablecoin called Diem. The stablecoin project faced heavy scrutiny from the U.S. Congress, and the project eventually came to a crashing end. A similar concern has started to grow around Facebook’s multi-billion-dollar metaverse aspirations.

The surveyed respondents were divided in terms of when metaverse could become mainstream, 20% of respondents believe it could take 1–2 years while 49% said it could take up to 3–6 years. Gaming was the primary choice of spending time in metaverse followed by socializing. 55% of the respondents said they would spend more than three hours a day in the metaverse.

Related: Tusk Ventures CEO: Don’t repeat social media mistakes with Metaverse regulations

A majority of the respondents also showed a keen interest in making money while playing games. With play-to-earn models being the latest rage, 93% of the respondents said they would spend more time playing games if it could make for the minimum wage. Some 64% said they would spend more than three hours if they made real money and 87% would switch to full-time gaming if the pay was good.

Metaverse as a concept only became formidable in 2021 and now every major tech giant be it Apple, Facebook or Google is looking to launch or invest in the ecosystem. However, a significant chunk of crypto proponents is advocating against the entry of centralized cash-rich firms, as they believe the concept of decentralization would take a back seat.