Does It Pay To Bet On Zuckerberg's Metaverse…Like Steve Jobs' iPhone And Bezos' Amazon? Here's What Analyst Says

Meta Platforms Inc. META has embraced the “efficiency” mantra, the premise behind the two rounds of massive job cuts announced by the company.

Zuckerberg’s Hits & Misses: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s efficiency drive is to increase profitability to continue the pursuit of the metaverse, which will likely give him breathing room to invest in tech for building the metaverse and keep investors happy at the same time, said Gene Munster, Managing Partner at Deepwater Asset Management.

“Historically, it pays to bet on Zuckerberg’s mission,” he said, adding that the tech entrepreneur has made good on two of his last three investor goals.

See Also: How To Invest In Metaverse

Munster noted that in 2009, the Meta CEO dropped out of Harvard to focus on the company, which was then called Facebook He got serious with the company and tasted success, he added.

In 2013, Zuckerberg oversaw the shift from desktop to mobile, a year after Facebook went public and increased mobile ad revenues from 23% of total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 53% in the fourth quarter of 2013, the venture capitalist said.

But the move of pivoting to metaverse initiated in 2021 hasn’t been a success, Munster noted. Meta lost $13.7 billion in its Reality Labs segment in 2022, which has laid the groundwork for Meta’s 2023 goals, he noted.

Personalizing Goal: Since Facebook rebranded as Meta in late 2021, investors have been skeptical of the potential of the metaverse, Munster said. This is after the CEO outlined his vision of the metaverse, grouping it under four platforms — social metaverse platform, VR metaverse platform, augmented reality and neural interfaces — he added.

“While Zuckerberg is still unsure how this all plays out, there’s one piece he’s sure of: there will be a computing platform beyond mobile, and most likely it will be anchored in some of the four platforms listed above,” Munster said.

“For Zuckerberg the metaverse is personal. It’s him planting a flag of where the world is going,” he added.

The tech analyst noted that tech legends such as Steve Jobs did it with the iPhone and Jeff Bezos with commerce. But Zuckerberg's prediction has more critics than supporters, given the theme has been slow to catch on, he said.

Munster raised the moot question of whether this technology is in search of a problem.

Price Action: In premarket trading on Friday, Meta shares were down 1.23%, at $202.40, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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