Meta celebrates its 10-year IPO anniversary, defends the metaverse

Yahoo Finance tech editor Dan Howley reports on how some investors are questioning Meta's big bet on the metaverse.

Video transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: All right, it's been 10 years since Facebook launched its IPO in the NASDAQ. It's still the largest IPO for a US tech company and the third largest among all sectors. Now the company, still headed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has a new name, Meta, and a new focus, as you know, the Metaverse. But is this investment in the virtual world the right move? Here to talk about this is our very own Dan Howley. Dan, a lot of people are not buying into the Metaverse, indeed.

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, it looks like we kind of got a message from Facebook today basically saying that we recognize that there's some difficulties. We recognize that there are some issues that we're working on. But Nick Clegg, the head of global affairs, basically came out, former deputy prime minister, by the way, of England, came out-- or United Kingdom-- came out and basically said that eventually, this could be a $3 trillion industry-- eventually. He also basically couched that-- and this is still 10 to 15 years into the future, as far as technology goes, and basically kind of trying to paint this investment in the Metaverse as a good idea.

You'll remember that we had seen Facebook kind of do that pivot to video a while ago. That was after the pivot to mobile. So they've managed to navigate these kinds of changes pretty well over time. I think the issue is right now, a lot of this has to do with what will the Metaverse eventually do. Will it ever take off? And I mean, in my opinion, what we're seeing out of the Metaverse is really companies that spent a boatload of cash on VR headsets and that kind of technology, and then said, well, what the hell are we going to do with this now? Because no one's buying them, right? So that's really what we're tending to see.

But this really coming from Nick Clegg today. It feels like it's Facebook saying, all right, we know that we're in for the long haul. We know that we had said we're cutting back on spending for the Metaverse. But we're still going to make it work. And whether or not that happens, I mean, 10 to 15 years, they're really giving themselves a lot of leeway there.

DAVE BRIGGS: Patience.

DAN HOWLEY: I mean, patience, my God. Yeah, I think I'll be close to 50 before that stuff works, so I mean, come on, guys. Let's get it together.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: So then when you look at this timeline, then, in terms of realistically, how long until the Metaverse is fully realized? And what needs to happen for more people to not just know about it, but care about it as well and even want to be a part of it, in terms of why do we even need this?

DAN HOWLEY: I mean, I think it really comes down to the tech that they have, right? And you need to provide something of interest, right? Right now, you have a headset, you have the Oculus headset. There's a few things on there that are interesting, but, you know, I mean, God bless you if you're the type of person that's on there for two hours a day or something like that, like you do-- pop a squat in front of your TV and watch some movies or whatever on Netflix. I don't think people are doing that when it comes to their headsets. They get them, they play with them for a little bit. It wears off, the little magic of it. And then you put it in your closet.

So there's really nothing, really, that's driving people crazy for these things. I think we need to see an improvement in the technology overall. Plus, there's still just the nagging issue of, if I reach out and try to grab something in the Metaverse, I don't feel anything. There's no tactile sensation. It's very strange. There's still issues with the graphics. Look, I've used Horizon Worlds. I have no legs. How am I supposed to feel like this is a new interactive experience when I literally have half of my body missing, right? I mean, it just-- it feels all sorts of strange to say that this is happening now. And they do give themselves that 10 to 15 years.

SEANA SMITH: I was just going to say--

DAN HOWLEY: I mean--

SEANA SMITH: --you ticked off a long laundry list of things that they need to improve. So it's a good thing that they gave themselves 10 or 15 years to address all this.

DAN HOWLEY: I mean, maybe they're doing that just to really cover themselves for now, but I don't know.

SEANA SMITH: All right, we'll see how it all shakes out in 10 or 15 years. All right, Dan Howley, thanks so much for stopping by.