Mark Zuckerberg’s “Metaphormosis”: Meta is popular again

Mark Zuckerberg is undergoing a remarkable image change. Maybe we should talk about “meta-morphosis”. Of course, it would be an exaggeration to suddenly describe the ruler of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp as “popular”. But at least Zuckerberg hasn’t caused any significant scandals for a long time, given his turbulent past.

In the fast-moving world of social media, the bogeyman of the unscrupulous “move fast and break things” entrepreneur is quickly fading. We remember: His company regularly made headlines because Instagram made young people sick, Facebook was used to manipulate elections and Meta sold its users’ personal data to the highest bidder.

Of course, these problems have not disappeared into thin air. But Zuckerberg’s image must also be seen relative to that of his competitors. He benefits from the fact that other players in the industry do things in a much more colorful way.

Next to Elon Musk, Zuckerberg appears well-behaved

There is Elon Musk, for example, who is becoming increasingly radical. His social media service X operates hard on the boundaries of good taste. In addition to crude conspiracy theories, X also offers a wide range of porn. XXX stop.

Or Telegram boss Pawel Durow, who has the reputation of running a pocket-sized darknet: drugs are sold via his platform or prospective suicide bombers are lured with virgins.

Yes, and then there is also the Tiktok dopamine trap with its particularly addictive algorithm: The short video service with Chinese owners is suspected of being an espionage and propaganda instrument of the Communist Party. In short: In this circle of Finsterlingen, the 40-year-old Zuckerberg seems almost mild in age.

Share price rises by 70 percent

Investors have also taken Zuckerberg back to their hearts after a few years of love withdrawal, even though he continues to sink billions of dollars into a bottomless pit called the Metaverse. But thanks to the savings round in 2023 – which the company founder described as a “year of efficiency” – Meta is making a lot of money again.

As a result, Meta’s price has increased by 70 percent since the beginning of the year. The company now has a net worth of $1,450 billion, and major shareholder Zuckerberg became the second richest man in the world in October, according to the Bloomberg news agency.

Only Elon Musk is heavier, but Zuckerberg is known to want to beat him up. Well, it was actually Musk who asked Zuckerberg to cage fight. But after that, Musk must have noticed how toned Zuckerberg seemed lately. He trains himself with Jiu-Jitsu and mixed martial arts. Since then, Musk has been finding new excuses so that he can avoid the confrontation that he himself had asked for.

Big biceps, curly hair, gold chain

However, the meta boss, who used to be a pale tech nerd, now not only has big biceps, but also wears curly hair, gold chains and loose T-shirts. Zuckerberg proved on his last birthday that this surfer bro outfit doesn’t have to contradict a certain intellectual standard.

There was the inscription “Carthago delenda est” written on the multi-billionaire’s broad chest: Carthage must be destroyed. It is not known how this affected the number of users of Instagram or Facebook in Tunisia.

And when you see Zuckerberg wearing one of the smart glasses that Meta developed together with Ray-Ban, he passes for cool. The fact that investors are again looking hopefully at Meta today also has to do with these data glasses.

Zuckerberg has long been preaching to his skeptical fellow shareholders that virtual reality and augmented reality headsets will be the computing platform of the future. Meta wants to dominate this. Today, when almost everything is still done via smartphones, Meta is heavily dependent on Apple and Google.

Aren’t data glasses dead after all?

The fact that data glasses could play an important role in the future no longer seems as far-fetched as it did a few years ago. There are three reasons for this:

1. Apple has also entered this product category, although so far with very limited success. The Apple Vision Pro is definitely a high-end device. But it seems clunky and costs ten times as much as the latest virtual reality headset from Meta, which is available in Switzerland from just 319 francs. The Apple Vision Pro is definitely not ten times as good.

2. Meta has recently turned to lightweight data glasses that project digital content onto the glasses. In contrast to the heavy headsets, the eternal niche products for gamers and nerds, these are really wearable.

The Ray-Ban Meta doesn’t have many functions, but it does have a great design. And with the handy Meta Orion data glasses, the company presented a prototype in September that convinced many experts.

3. Thanks to generative artificial intelligence, it is much easier to control smart glasses like Ray-Ban Meta or Meta Orion via voice commands.

Meta is a big player in artificial intelligence

And meta can do AI. The fact that Zuckerberg conjured up a large language model last year with Llama made it clear to his fellow shareholders that it might be worth investing billions in new technologies because they could suddenly be the measure of all things. Who knows, maybe in a few years the Metaverse will suddenly come back into fashion. And then everyone looks stupid, except Zuckerberg.

In contrast to the AI ​​competition, Llama is an open source language model, which means that the program code is available to users for free use. You can study it, change it, spread it. This openness sets Meta apart from other companies. Only the name is open about Open AI.

The open source language model Llama is also an important factor in Zuckerberg’s new image. The Dark One of old now seems a bit like a benefactor. Many people are still wondering: Is this real or just a virtual trick?