I mean stuff like Meta, crypto and all that obvious scam shit that rich people seem to be diving dick first into lately.

Zuck supposedly spent BILLIONS on Meta, and when you look at the result, yeah, it's clear that the money wasn't being spent on the actual product. So where did that money really go?

Or are billionaires just really that bad with money and ideas?

brace-watching Something is sus about just how stupid with their money they've become. I mean, they were always stupid, but when you have that much money and power you have to be a special kind of inept to do what Zuck and Musk have been doing to their companies.

  • CriticalOtaku [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I'm sure it's just a matter of time before they buy VRChat or something.

    This is what they should have done. That and put out a minimum spec occulus that's dirt cheap. The data harvesting and monetization can come later, if you don't have an installed user base nothing will happen.

    • Wheaties [she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      they'd either have to nix user-uploaded avatars or face the legal battles it would bring -- either way, it undermines the point of buying it in the first place

      • CriticalOtaku [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Nah, allow users to freely upload their own avatars, just open a marketplace and let user's sell their custom avatars and/or custom assets for avatars, for a cut.

          • CriticalOtaku [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Fair, just that my larger point was to grab an installed user base and then e-shittyfy it, rather than build something shitty first. You can work out rights issues with Disney once you have the Kermit avatar user's, rather than having no user's at all

    • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, and I think not having that is due to covid and the subsequent supply chain issues really throwing a wrench into their plans. Honestly, a lot of the issues I've been seeing I think can also be chalked up to neoliberal capitalism just shooting itself in the foot. Who knows what's happening behind the scenes with the US being so aggressive towards China. The Intelligence community is so deeply entrenched in social media orgs that I can only imagine the frustration of being a global corporation leashed by the world's rabid dog. Small favors that the US is kneecapping its allies, I guess.

      • CriticalOtaku [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Right, but also building an app with the plan to attract advertisers first before attracting users to advertise to was just a recipe for disaster from the get go. It's like the financialization of software programming- to the point where meta seems to have forgotten it's own history.

        • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          1 year ago

          to the point where meta seems to have forgotten it's own history.

          Oh, I think they have. I'd guess that most of the devs that turned facebook into the platform powerhouse of the 2010s are long gone. Replaced by kids with boot camp cert programs created to flood the IT labor market. 🦶🔫