In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg recast Facebook as Meta and declared the metaverse — a digital realm where people would work, socialize, and spend much of their lives — the company’s next great frontier. He framed it as the “successor to the mobile internet” and said Meta would be “metaverse-first.”

Meta is planning deep reductions to its metaverse budget next year, a move that signals the clearest shift yet in Mark Zuckerberg’s long-term strategy, the Financial Times reported.