Goodbye, Facebook. Hello, Meta.
It still feels weird to say. But, yes, Facebook has officially changed its name to Meta, in a symbol that the trillion-dollar digital advertising giant is betting its entire future on the metaverse.
To longtime readers, this isn’t surprise. We’ve been telling you ever since Facebook’s second-quarter earnings call when CEO Mark Zuckberg said “metaverse” about 20 times, that Facebook was pivoting its business from social media to metaverse, and that over the next decade, Facebook will become a metaverse company.
The name change is just a formality. Nonetheless, it does represent a new era for Facebook.
We have mixed feelings about this.
On one hand, we’re foaming-at-the-mouth bullish on the metaverse. Long story short, humans are natural escapists. We like reality, sure, but we also like to escape reality sometimes.
A few decades ago, we escaped via analog platforms, like books, magazines, and movies.
Today, we escape via 2D-internet platforms, like video games, social media, and streaming shows.
Tomorrow, we are going to escape via 3D-internet platforms, like VR gaming, virtual bars/clubs, and immersive shows and movies.
It’s the natural progression of things. 3D-internet platforms represent the next evolution of human escapism. Our jump to those platforms isn’t a matter of “if” – it’s a matter of “when.”
“When” is now.
The augmented and virtual reality hardware underlying our access to these platforms – like Facebook’s Oculus Rift headset – has advanced to a point of being good enough for mass consumer use. Over the next 12 to 24 months, these headsets are going to go from niche adoption, to household ubiquity, and the world will jump from 2D-internet platforms, to 3D-internet platforms.
The metaverse will be born.
The economic opportunities here are huge. A new generation of metaverse gaming will reshape the $175 billion gaming market. A new generation of metaverse advertising will reshape the $455 billion digital ad market. A new generation of metaverse entertainment will reshape the multi-trillion-dollar leisure and travel markets.
The companies at the epicenter of the metaverse – the companies that create the best metaverse games, the best metaverse advertisements, and the best metaverse entertainment experiences – will generate huge economic value.
That’s the good news.
The bad news? We’re doubtful that Facebook will be one of those companies.
Sure, the company has a war-chest of capital to invest in metaverse technologies. Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities measured $58 billion last quarter. Facebook has a huge resource advantage when it comes to building metaverse experiences.
But they’ll need that war-chest, because despite the name-change and “all-in” talk from Zuckerberg, Facebook is way behind the eight-ball here. Multiple tech companies have been developing metaverse technology for several years now.
In particular, one of Facebook’s closest competitors has been working on metaverse technology since the mid-2010s, and it is miles ahead of Facebook. This company – not Facebook – is our pick to win the multi-trillion-dollar metaverse race.
And that’s why this stock – not Facebook stock – is in our Innovation Investor portfolio.
A quick refresher: Innovation Investor is our flagship investment research advisory which focuses on investing in the world’s most transformative technologies, like the metaverse. And we don’t just invest in those technologies – we invest only in the most innovative and promising companies developing those technologies.
Facebook doesn’t make the cut. This other company does – and we think it is going to be a huge winner in the metaverse revolution.
What is this company’s name? Ticker symbol? How high can the stock go? Click here to get all those answers.
On the date of publication, Luke Lango did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
