With Facebook – or Meta as it is now known – gradually expanding its catalog of digital services, it makes sense that the company would also be considering physical stores as well.
According to The New York Times, this could be on the cards – with leaked internal documents outlining plans for IRL Facebook stores through which it would sell its VR headsets, AR glasses, Portal devices and more – although this is just a speculation.
As per The New York Times:
“Meta has discussed opening retail stores that will eventually span the world, said people with knowledge of the project and company documents viewed by The New York Times. The stores would be used to introduce people to devices made by the company’s Reality Labs division, such as virtual reality headsets and, eventually, augmented reality glasses, they said.”
The broader idea is that in order to guide users towards Meta’s vision of the Metaverse, an immersive digital world of endless possibilities, Meta will need to get more of these tools into more homes, and physical stores could be a better way to establish direct-to-consumer supply chains, while also enabling new showcase opportunities to generate more sales.
Which makes sense – according to Social Media expert Andrew Hutchinson.
Right now, you can buy Facebook’s products in retail stores, but they’re lining the shelves alongside many other competing devices and options, and don’t generally get specific focus. If Facebook wanted to invest more into direct marketing, and showcasing its next-level plans, it would be best-placed to do so via its own, dedicated promotion and product displays, which it could directly control within its own stores, built specifically around its offerings.
Meta’s VR headsets seem like the most obvious focus in this respect, with the company’s fully-enabled Metaverse vision aligned around wholly interactive VR worlds, which would only truly be possible in the VR environment.
If Meta can build the central platform that would facilitate such connection, it will be well-placed to play a central role in the next stage of digital connection – which Meta has been keen to repeat that no one company will ‘own’, as such. But in reality, somebody will need to build the platform that other developers can plug into, and Meta is likely best-placed to play a key role in establishing the parameters for universal connectivity and functionality in this respect.
Eventually, that will likely require the establishment of an independent consortium, or industry-wide agreement, which would then facilitate the creation of universal schemas and data sharing processes for interoperability within the space, and broader creative and collaborative pathways. But again, Meta, with its advanced work in VR (via the company formerly known as Oculus), is already leading the way, and looks well-placed to win out in this shift.
It would be a major undertaking, but it does make sense – and again, the company’s expanding product line points to growing opportunity in this respect.
Soon, a Meta store could be coming to your local mall, which would make connecting into the Metaverse as easy as buying a headset at a store and logging on.
There’s a way to go in this, but you can see how the next stage is getting closer with every shift.
Follow @itp.live for more updates.