Metaverse Will Be As 'Important As The Smartphone': Meta Platforms Chief Product Officer

During a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Chris Cox, chief product officer at Meta Platforms Inc META, said the metaverse will one day become as essential as smartphones.

Before the metaverse can be what Meta envisions it to be, it needs to work like a smartphone, Cox said.

What Happened: The executive said that while Meta has spent the last eight years (and billions of dollars) trying to build a virtual reality product line that is affordable and accessible, those efforts will fall on blind eyes if the lack of interoperability with other platforms keeps up.

“I think the Internet is a very good way of thinking about the metaverse, because some parts of the internet are very coherent with each other,” Cox said at the panel, noting that it is not yet as seamless as switching from one app to another on a smartphone.

He said that compatibility “doesn’t exist yet for the metaverse,” according to Insider.

Why It Matters: Reality Lab, Meta’s division responsible for building the metaverse, lost roughly $19 billion over the last two years.

Insider noted CEO Mark Zuckerberg doubled down on his commitment to building the metaverse and said spending on the high tech division is set to increase throughout this year despite mass layoffs at the company late last year.

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