What differentiates Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook from other relatively young enterprises are the fact that they have retained that entrepreneurial streak as their products has matured. Mark definitely hit a gold mine when he came up with Facebook, which has since taken the world by storm. Adding new features every month, including Facebook Messenger and instant articles, to name a few, he has ensured Facebook keeps coming up with new features to maintain their users engaged and wanting more.
However, what truly makes Mark Zuckerberg a genius, a quality that Yahoo lacked, is that he knows that the Facebook’s business model is going down. He has noticed a gaping hole and a possible future threat that could derail Facebook – Virtual Reality. Rather than being intimidated, however, he wants virtual reality to be the future of Facebook.
Facebook Virtual Reality is a bold step into the future. It takes a significant leap from a thousand lines of code to a sophisticated hardware that everyone would want to possess!
Why Facebook chase after virtual reality?
One of the Facebook developer Yaser Sheikh said that social VR would add a whole new dimension to social networking. Job interviews, poker games, and the likes would become a lot easier and helpful. It would help people connect (which is Facebook’s basic idea) on a different level. It would almost feel like you’re there with your American cousin, chatting and having ice cream while you’re actually on your couch in Qatar. It would eliminate distance from the equation which is what the world is desperately waiting for. Some sort of teleportation. Virtual reality is a multi-billion dollar business, and Facebook is taking a brave step expanding its limited realm of gaming experience and using it to explore the world of social networking.
Investing in Oculus virtual reality
Zuckerberg then bought Oculus, a major VR technology company for 2 billion dollars to start exploring the world of social VR. Oculus is a leading company. Having launched about 30 games and starting nearly 70 more by the end of the year, it took a lead when it sold Rift, a VR technology that made gaming an anywhere-anything experience and changed the course of gaming. It helped people to escape reality and travel another world. Imagine escaping your exams and assignments and entering into the world of Star Wars. I think we can all agree that sounds absolutely spectacular.
To be honest, Facebook is pushing this VR technology project faster than expected. Facebook wouldn’t have a loss investing in Oculus. In fact, it would also give incentive to other companies to make their products Facebook compatible soon. If the VR industry grew, (which it will consider how people prefer the virtual world over reality any day), Facebook along with Oculus would become the hot topic for discussion.
Facebook Virtual Reality Ambitions
The aim of this project is to expand Virtual Reality to making movies and watching sports and making conversations and connecting with people. Imagine this: Yankees game in 360 degrees as if you’re in the stadium, except in HD; scrolling through your friend’s graduation photos in 3D as if you were part of the ceremony; having a Facebook video conference with your grandma, taking a good look at the various features of her wheelchair and explaining it to her.
Zuckerberg said that he wanted Facebook to have a hardware. Something that people would hold on to, and not just lines and lines of code. Even though the code was a key achievement, he wanted Facebook to own VR like how Apple and Google own phones. It is “the golden age of videos,” he said.
How far from the goal are they?
Zuckerberg made it clear that VR still as a long way to go. Lots of problems, questions and variables to consider in the equation. He said that it is not hard to predict how the world is going to be, it is only hard figuring out how to get there. He thinks this project is worthy of substantial investment and hence, is ready to invest even a NASA-like research park to study human reactions and mechanisms and full-body motions to get ahead in the development of the product.
The undertaking of this project would be immensely brutal since they would have to turn it into a mass-scale production of Oculus goggles and put it into the hands of people. Very different from just coding (which is how Facebook started off). He said that some of the problems that they’re facing in the making of Facebook virtual reality don’t even have names. They are having to get a real understanding of the question to start answering it. They’re also having to conduct more studies and dig deeper into researching the brain and its mechanisms. There are just way too many x’s in the equation at the moment. But Zuckerberg is not flinching to put in as much as it takes to answer these questions, whether its mind or money.
What do we think about Facebook Virtual Reality goals?
People have been waiting for something like this for a while now. “If only I could watch this game in 3D and take a proper look at Pepe’s foul”, “Sorry, I couldn’t attend your house warming. If only I could take a tour of your house from all the way here”, “If only I could get a panoramic view of your room I could help you look for your papers too”, “I can help you fix your car but I need to get a better view of the engine parts”. Honestly, there are too many situations that made us wish for something like this either consciously or subconsciously. And that “this” is now. Facebook is making it possible. It will take a long time for sure, but at least the initiation has started. And you know what they say about the step one. Take the first step, and you’re halfway there.
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