Meta is having a hard time keeping users engaged with glitchy features and empty worlds.
The metaverse isn't accessible to casual users with a $400 price tag. Those who get a chance to try the tech experience will get a lot of baffling branded content, persistent bugs, and empty worlds. Employees don't seem to like the platform and say there is a quality problem.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in response to user complaints, Meta put the platform into "lockdown", pausing the roll out of new features while it works to improve the user experience.
The lack of legs and few other users have been criticized by users. Only 9% of worlds built by users are ever visited by at least 50 people, according to internal statistics.
Meta instituted a safety feature that created a virtual 4-foot buffer around the platform after some female users reported sexual harassment. The WSJ reported that men outnumber women by two to one on the platform and that a WSJ staff member was asked to expose herself while reporting.
According to WSJ Journal, internal documents show that Meta has fallen short of its goals. The company had originally set a goal of 500,00 monthly users by the end of 2022. The platform has a low number of users. After the first month, most users don't return to the app, and more than half of the Quest 2 headsets are out of use within six months.
One document said that an empty world was a sad world, according to the WSJ.
Insider reported that some investors have raised questions about Meta's investment in Reality Labs due to the low user retention, feature glitch, and high cost of access.
The lead product manager for the metaverse platform wrote in a memo that it was unclear where the platform fit in the investment framework. We need to rethink how we allocate resources.
Representatives for Meta did not reply immediately.
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