Why is Zuck rebranding himself for the metaverse?

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, a prominent podcast, to promote the metaverse. The podcast has a mostly male audience, and averages 11 million listeners per episode.

Why should we care?
Zuckerberg seems increasingly desperate in his attempts to promote the metaverse and transform his loss leader into a viable business. In this most recent branding pivot, the geeky Meta CEO marketed himself as an alpha male who enjoys wrestling with friends. Using the lingo of the manosphere on a podcast known for Covid-19 misinformation, Zuckerberg described TV consumption as an effeminate activity compared to the more ‘active’ complexities of AR- and VR-based leisure. “You’re just sitting around in this beta state, consuming stuff,” he said in reference to watching TV. Despite Zuck’s haughty demeanor, his podcast appearance suggests the metaverse is failing to take off the way Zuckerberg wants it to, making Meta desperate to find any fan base willing to commit to it. Reality Labs, Meta’s AR/VR-development subsidiary, reported $10B in losses last year, and saw losses increase by 15% in Q1 2022 compared to the same time last year. To date, the metaverse has managed to scrape together an audience of around 15 million on its platforms, which is a tiny fraction of the daily engagement Meta sees through Facebook and Instagram. “If Horizon Worlds [Meta’s metaverse initiative] were made by some other company, Zuckerberg probably wouldn’t even bother copying it,” quipped Bloomberg columnist Max Chafkin. As much as Meta hopes the metaverse will become a new digital economy in and of itself, tepid public response—if not dismay at Hail Mary-esque attempts like Zuckerberg’s podcast visit—suggests it’s not taking off anytime soon.