For one thing, I still don't understand Meta as a business. It seems like Zuck refused to accept owning a boring ad business and keeps trying to act like a tech business.

For another, this seems like a move that happens when the bubble pops.

The dotcom bubble went from having tons of business raising fortunes on the promise of business models the internet unlocks to having few internet businesses left at that scale and a bunch of unused fiber.

Now we're starting to see all the companies claiming AI products will make fortunes to them trying to sell unused hardware capacity.

He might be scared that his ad business won't be as profitable in a few years. He'll still be rich, but perhaps that's not enough for him. He has all the correct number and knows exactly how many of their users are bots and how much of the ad revenue comes from scams. Maybe he sees a potential risk that we can't.

Could also be a self-image thing. Facebook isn't exactly young and fashionable anymore, it's more akin to a weird mid-90s idea of a close walled Internet in some sense. Instagram users I'd guess is mostly younger women. None of these really align with Zuckerbergs macho persona.

The difference is the hardware will become obsolete in a few years, unlike the dark fibre (really, rights of way) that provided cheap connectivity for years after the crash.

Unfortunately he has too much cash since he owns some of the largest social networks and thus receives insane amounts of ad spend… this will not end soon

He just has that much money and his 'whatever ecosystem this is' continues to work, it has to be a kind a playground for him.

He could invest in paying back society but he cares more about continuing his ignorance.

Just imagine how his ego got stroked when he was agreeing with trump like a bootlicker but still sitting at a table at the Whitehouse.

Even with this clown this has to count for something in his books.

It’s a pretty consistent story in tech. Meta built a successful ads platform. That success went to their head and the company starts acting like it’s just great at tech and innovation and tried to do a bunch of other stuff. Turns out it’s pretty crap at most other things and can’t figure out how to make money from anything other than selling ads. Company is very headstrong and refuses to admit it’s just not good at other stuff. It has enough cash from ads to not go bankrupt and so just carries on with this nonsense on cycle after cycle of crazy side projects that go nowhere.

> For one thing, I still don't understand Meta as a business

Zuck got spooked by apple ads change a few years ago, which crashed the meta's stock to double digit. So Zuck is trying to own a platform. They want to be a version of openai selling ads

> It seems like Zuck refused to accept owning a boring ad business

Zuck sees a real problem: not owning the platform.

Hence the VR and other attempts. He sees what he has today as a dead end. The fear grips him.

In theory Google and Apple could ban Meta’s apps and it would be game over.