The Profile

Master of the metaverse: Is Zuckerberg’s virtual frontier a step too far for the rest of humanity?

Tech entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg has spent around $36 billion on the immersive virtual universe hailed as ‘the next big thing’. Unfortunately, neither his investors, his employees or the wider public share his enthusiasm

Mark Zuckerberg: the key problem for the Meta chief is that very few people want to spend time in his virtual world. Illustration: Peter Hanan

For someone who looks so out of his comfort zone in the real world, perhaps the only real surprise about Mark Zuckerberg’s wholehearted embrace of the metaverse is that it has taken so long.

Many of us came across the concept of a metaverse only when Facebook announced a rebrand to Meta, and the jury is still out on what exactly it is. But perhaps it is only natural that Zuck might be drawn to ...