Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, is still struggling for its metaverse app Horizon Worlds to find its intended audience. The company, that presented a video of full new avatars, including feet this week, was criticized due to the prepared nature of the presentation. In the same way, the company lowered the goal of monthly active users from 500K to 280K by the end of this year.
No Real Feet Show, Meta States
Meta, the social media behemoth, is battling problems left and right when it comes to its metaverse app Horizon Worlds. As part of its Connect keynote offered last week, the company presented a demo that supposedly showed an early look at the new graphical presentation of avatars that the platform will feature next year. One of the big improvements in this regard was the presence of legs that connected these to the floor making the metaverse more immersive.
After the presentation, which left some confused, the company clarified this animation segment was created with auxiliary tech, including motion capture, to show what is coming to the app in the future. This statement enraged some of the fans that criticized the bulk of the money the company is spending on this without solving the leg problem.
User Enticement and Retention
Legs are not the biggest problem that Meta is facing with Horizon worlds. According to a recent article from The Verge, the platform is also struggling to acquire new users and has lowered its goal of reaching a number of 500K monthly active users to 280K. While the company stated in February the app had more than 10,000 worlds as part of its structure, only 9% of these worlds are being visited by more than 50 users.
In the same way, most users don’t return after one month of visiting the platform, a metric that shows users are growing bored with what Horizon Worlds has to offer. But not only regular users are leaving the platforms; Meta’s employees are also on this boat.
Two memos issued by Meta’s VP of metaverse Vishal Shah in September enticing employees to be active and to “fall in love” with the platform, and hinting at the establishment of time quotas that employees should spend on Horizon Worlds for employees, show Meta’s issues.
Spokespersons from the company stated Meta’s metaverse plans are a “multiyear effort,” and that it is continually making improvements to the platform.
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