Horizon Worlds, MetaThe leading metaverse for consumers, failed to meet internal performance expectations, according to The Wall Street Journalwhich reviewed the company’s internal documents.
Meta originally set a goal of reaching 500,000 monthly active users in Horizon Worlds by the end of the year, but the number is now less than 200,000, according to the report. In addition, the documents show that most users have not returned to Horizon after the first month of using the platform, and the number of users has been gradually decreasing since the spring, the Journal said.
According to the report, only 9% of the world is visited by at least 50 people and most have never been visited.
The report is given as a company stocks fell, the number of users decreased and advertisers cut back on spending. As of now, Meta stock is down 62% this year.
Meta rebrand from Facebook last year to reflect the company’s ambitions beyond social media. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is particularly interested in building the metaverse, a virtual world that allows users to work and play together.
Thus, Meta created Horizon Worlds, a network of virtual spaces where users can interact with each other in the form of avatars. Individuals can access Horizon through the Meta Quest virtual reality headset.
In an attempt to generate some excitement around the metaverse, Zuckerberg unveiled his company’s newest virtual reality headset, dubbed the Meta Quest Pro, at the Meta Connect conference on Tuesday. The device costs $1,500 and contains new technologies, such as an advanced Snapdragon mobile computer chip.
A spokesperson for Meta told The Wall Street Journal that the company continues to improve the metaverse, which has always been seen as a multi-year project. Representatives for Meta did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Meta has said it will release a web version of Horizon for mobile and desktop this year, but the spokesperson did not have any launch date to reveal.
Read the full Journal report here.
