Skip to main content

Meta expects a billion people in the metaverse by 2030

Meta believes that a billion people will be participating in the metaverse within the next decade, despite the concept feeling very nebulous at the moment.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke with CNBC’s Jim Cramer on a recent broadcast of Mad Money and went on to say that purchases of metaverse digital content would bring in hundreds of billions of dollars for the company by 2030. This would quickly reverse the growing deficit of Meta’s Reality Labs, which has already invested billions into researching and developing VR and AR hardware and software.

A vision of Meta's metaverse in the work setting.

Currently, this sounds like a stretch given that only a small percentage of the population owns virtual reality hardware and few dedicated augmented reality devices have been released from major manufacturers. Apple and Google have each developed AR solutions for smartphones and Meta has admitted that the metaverse won’t require special hardware in order to access it.

Any modern computer, tablet, or smartphone has sufficient performance to display virtual content, however, the fully immersive experience is available only when wearing a head-mounted display, whether that takes the form of a VR headset or AR glasses.

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg on seeing a 'massive economy' around the metaverse

According to Cramer, Meta is not taking a cut from creators initially, while planning to continue to invest heavily into hardware and software infrastructure for the metaverse. Meta realizes it can’t build an entire world by itself and needs the innovation of creators and the draw of influencers to make the platform take off in the way Facebook and Instagram have.

Jim Cramer on why Meta stock is a buy after interview with Mark Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg explained that Meta’s playbook has always been to build services that fill a need and grow the platform to a billion or more users before monetizing it. That means the next 5 to 10 years might be a rare opportunity for businesses and consumers to take advantage of a low-cost metaverse experience before Meta begins to demand a share. Just as Facebook was once ad-free, the early metaverse might be blissfully clear from distractions.

This isn’t exclusively Meta’s strategy, but the growth method employed by most internet-based companies. Focusing on growth first and money later has become standard practice. In the future, a balancing act will be required to make enough money to fund services while keeping the metaverse affordable enough to retain users.

While Meta might not get a billion people to strap on a VR headset by 2030, there’s little doubt that the metaverse will become an active area of growth. It should interest enough VR, AR, smartphone, tablet, and computer owners to be self-sustaining within a few years and could actually explode to reach a billion people by 2030.

Editors' Recommendations

Alan Truly
Computing Writer
Alan is a Computing Writer living in Nova Scotia, Canada. A tech-enthusiast since his youth, Alan stays current on what is…
Major tax services are sending your data to Meta and Google
fake irs emails are delivering dangerous new malware this tax season 1040 form being filled out

A new report claims that Meta's tracking Pixel has been used to collect your financial information when using popular tax filing services to send in your return. This is disturbing news for taxpayers that likely assumed these online tax services were keeping such information locked up securely.

The types of data collected vary but are said to possibly include your filing status, adjusted gross income (rounded to the nearest thousand), and the amount of your refund (rounded to the nearest hundred). This information would be quite useful in targeting advertising to those with disposable income and help determine which people to target when tax refunds arrive. As if this wasn't bad enough, your name, phone number, and the names of dependents such as your children are being obfusticated then sent to Meta by some tax filing services. According to the report by The Markup the obfustication is reversible.

Read more
This hidden feature in the Meta Quest Pro could arrive soon
Alan Truly is writing using a Quest Pro with a paiered keyboard and mouse.

A hidden feature was just discovered in the Meta Quest Pro and it could bring big changes in how you use your VR headset. We already know the Quest Pro’s Touch Controllers are very advanced, possibly the best in the industry. The latest news is that they seem to have a built-in trackpad.

This will interest Quest 2 owners as well because the Touch Controllers will be compatible with Meta’s budget headset after a software update. They’re bundled with the Quest Pro and a pair sells separately for $300 to expand the tracking speed and accuracy of the Quest 2.

Read more
Meta Quest Pro teardown reveals some big surprises
Creative Electron took an x-ray scan of Meta's Quest Pro VR headset.

The iFixit YouTube channel, which is best-known for disassembling smartphones, turned its focus to the new Meta Quest Pro VR headset, which yielded some interesting surprises.

Meta Quest Pro Teardown: Inside the $1500 Portal to Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse

Read more