The metaverse, the overhyped iteration of the internet as a single, universal and immersive virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets.
While the term was originally coined in the the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash, it was Philip Rosedale's Second Life that was the first to commercialize it as a technology of the future. But it was Facebook that propelled the term to become the hype of the century.
Facebook's ambition towards the metaverse is so big, that founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to rebrand Facebook the company to Meta.
The multi-billion dollar metaverse project from Meta first came to light when the company unveiled Horizon Worlds.
While it promises social experience never before experienced by users, Horizon Worlds has lots of issues.
First of, the metaverse is considered not safe for children, and that it has to many quality and performance issues.
Horizon Worlds has so many problems that even Meta's employees don't seem very engaged with it.
Even more issues were revealed in leaked memos obtained by The Verge written by Metaverse VP Vishal Shah.
It is said that issues with Horizon World also include a "confusing and frustrating" onboarding experience.
Shah asked the team to halt the development of the project to initiate a "quality lockdown" that spans until the end of 2022.
He also told employees that they were not being flexible enough, and had to collaborate better.
In Shah's memos to employees, he also asked why the team members building the app weren't spending a lot of time on the app.
"Why don't we love the product we've built so much that we use it all the time," Shah wrote. "The simple truth is, if we don't love it, how can we expect our users to love it?"
Another memo from Shah said that Meta was planning to ensure managers make their teams use the app at least once a week.
"Everyone in this organization should make it their mission to fall in love with Horizon Worlds. You can't do that without using it," said Shah.
"Get in there. Organize times to do it with your colleagues or friends, in both internal builds but also the public build so you can interact with our community."
The highlight is that, Shah said that Horizon Worlds "has not found product market fit."
"Since launching late last year, we have seen that the core thesis of Horizon Worlds — a synchronous social network where creators can build engaging worlds — is strong," Shah wrote in a memo.
"But currently feedback from our creators, users, playtesters, and many of us on the team is that the aggregate weight of papercuts, stability issues, and bugs is making it too hard for our community to experience the magic of Horizon. Simply put, for an experience to become delightful and retentive, it must first be usable and well crafted."
The memos reveal a worrying picture for a core component of Zuckerberg's big bet on the metaverse.
Zuckerberg once said that once Facebook the company shifted to the metaverse, it would no longer be considered a social media company. When that happened, Facebook rebranded to Meta, and started focusing on developing the metaverse.
However, the issues were so great, that the company had to improve the existing product over introducing new features.
This happened as Meta faces a slowdown in its core advertising business and the departure of his top executive, Sheryl Sandberg, who has been at Zuckerberg's side since the very beginning of Facebook.