Is Meta Shifting it's Content Policy?
I've written many times about Meta's policy of just providing a store full of games for gamers, but is this recent advert from Meta a sign of things to come?
This week Meta launched the advert below, showing the general public what the wider use cases for VR and AR are, though they used the word "metaverse" to encapsulate thier ideology.
Now the cynical amongst you here may think that this potential shift in positioning is a counter to Apple, and what is widely perceived to be a more open platform, from a content perspective anyway.
Apple with its upcomming Vision Pro headset will no doubt follow the route that its taken with its already established App Store (the same can be said from Google too) to keep a wide diveristy of content that bring people value everyday, which in turns mean daily active users (DAUs) for apps with utility.
Whilst Meta and the other platforms like Vive and Pico have fitness content and some meditation apps, and that's pretty much it when it come to bringing users back each day out of need and necessity rather than nice to do.
So I think this is the main reason for the change in perceived use cases and value.
In an ideal world (and you're right, currently this isnt it) we would have a strong selection of content on all platforms, a good mix of games, yes of course, but also, and just like the mobile phone cousins offerings from medical diagnostics to enterprise offferings.
Personally I think the answer is to have a proper segmented app store (Meta) the onus on safety of users is underwritten by the game/app owner, not the platform owner.
This approach has served Apple well since the inception of the iPhone in 2007.
What do you think, will Meta pivot more and more leading up to the launch of Vision Pro?
In reality (if you pardon the pun) Meta hold some pretty big cards, especially if they:
- Open up the Oculus store and App lab to a wider range of content
- Launch a $200 VR headset later in 2024
They could quite literally fend off a major assault from a big new player in the market and widen thier market share if they utilise the above two points.
Time will tell.
