this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
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[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 204 points 1 month ago (6 children)

If a company can dump $100B into failed project and still be profitable they have too much money. Jesus, imagine would would happen if this money went to the workers instead...

[–] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 169 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It's actually crazy that you can burn $100B in a project that everybody mocked from the beginnings and still be CEO after that while having earned billions in compensation

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 81 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Hell, it’s fucking insane that we have to earn our bonuses and they still fucking suck yet these people will get millions after fucking it all up. Imagine if a regular worker failed this hard and was like “so where’s my $15,000 Christmas bonus?”

[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 29 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I didn't fuck up and only got a tenth of that.

[–] TheEEEdiot@sh.itjust.works 36 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You guys are getting Christmas bonuses?

[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I got a membership to the Jelly of the Month Club.

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[–] Soup@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I didn’t fuck up and I always got the “default” $500CAD.

[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 11 points 1 month ago

To be fair, my last company didn't pay anything because... uhm they had a record breaking year but they wanted more and thus it was nearly bankrupting them. Emotionally, I mean.

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[–] 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 month ago (3 children)

imagine would would happen if this money went to the workers instead...

where do you think the money went? I imagine a lot of it went to workers salaries....

[sweating profusely] Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!

[–] MajorasMaskForever@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I hope this meme never dies, but I fear it's already reaching obscurity

[–] 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I only learned about it 3 weeks ago... trying to keep it alive

I'M DOING MY PART

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[–] Damage@feddit.it 11 points 1 month ago

imagine would would happen if this money went to the workers instead

imagine if they used it develop poor countries

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[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 82 points 1 month ago

Lol at all the companies who got rugpulled again because they trusted Zuck's promises. Get rekt bozos.

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 68 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Over $100 billion down the toilet and zuck is still one of the richest people in the world wtf?

[–] Gonzako@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The US economy has devolved from an economy where you gain money by making and selling things to an economy where investing in the stock market and then taking out loans on that stock to keep investing is a better way to keep making money. When was the last time someone rich became poor?

[–] hector@lemmy.today 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That is one of the ways they avoid taxes. They take out loans to pay old loans and to spend on the value of their investments at good rates, and since they never realize income they never pay taxes. I think interest is even tax deductible to a degree.

Bezos in 2020, a year his wealth multiplied obscenely, paid 600 dollars. Less than we did.

As per a couple of propublica articles they published around 2021.

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[–] Balldowern@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 month ago

Trillion is the new Billion.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

100 billion must be in lost market capitalization, not real money, just like tesla is theoretically worth a trillion dollars, no one could recognize that money.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

100 billion is a touch higher than I've read elsewhere, but evidently they actually spent $77 billion 'real' dollars:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-zuckerberg-threw-77-billion-143014208.html

[–] hector@lemmy.today 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Good god I figured it must have been wrong as it's such a large amount of money. I wonder how much of that they borrowed and how much they paid in cash. They might be paying astronomical interest payments on all of that.

Just goes to show how we have all the wrong people in charge in the west, at every level from government to business from the ceo on down to middle managers. Zuck is case and point. Well, as someone else posted, this article about their failure has legs. Unlike his stupid metaverse, that no one seemed even slightly interested in from the start.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, they bought a modest, niche product with a likely viable business case, and then bet they could make it an everyman's device for all their socializing and experiencing events like sports and music....

The people that actually wanted the device got to take a back seat to them chasing non-existent markets for it... Their aspirations so impossibly high that a niche device could no longer justify itself against the money spent chasing that non-existant market.. So something that should have been for some VR nerds to be happy and sustain the business while the rest of the world shrugs and say 'I don't get it' becomes an 'Obviously this is a failure of a concept and no one should bother doing this'.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 8 points 1 month ago

Classic case of yes men-ism. Everyone around zuck tells him he's the greatest, smartest, infallible. He likely removed anyone from his life that was willing to tell him he was wrong. He is making money hand over fist, and believes it, he's special, the laser light of all knowledge shines out of his ass, don't look directly at it or you can go blind. So he gets an idea, tells his people how he thinks everyone could get into it, they all heartily agree, what a great idea zuck!

I bet if anyone did tell him it wasn't, he fired or removed them from his life, and still hasn't apologized or made amends about it too, and instead doesn't hold any sort of grudge against the people that told him he was right despite knowing better and being too craven to tell the truth.

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[–] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 66 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I guess the idea just didn't have legs!

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 65 points 1 month ago

If they can burn a billion dollars on shit everyone else knew was a failure from day 1, they can pay a fucking reasonable tax rate

[–] monad@anarchist.nexus 60 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (8 children)

Great News!

Nobody should use or support anything Meta. As a matter if principle.

[–] clutchtwopointzero@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago (4 children)

The whole concept was dead on arrival. Second Life never took off and it was perplexing to see that Meta thought it could make it work.

[–] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 13 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I mean - it kind of does work. There are millions of people socializing in online games. Playing World of Warcraft with their friends or people they met there. Building crazy things on a Minecraft server while forming friendships. Playing on that Counterstrike Server for decades with the same people. Forming that guild or that clan in an MMORPG. There is something that does work. Not sure why Zuckerberg wanted VR to be part of that and that Facebook touch of poo is also not helping, but trying to build "World of Warcraft for your aunt" is not the worst idea.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 30 points 1 month ago

Games have something to do with socialization as an extra benefit.

The meta shit was conceived of as 3d advertising with socialization as an extra benefit.

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[–] kalleboo@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What happened to Second Life anyway? All the gooners are on VRChat now and they seem to be doing fine

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[–] artyom@piefed.social 12 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Yeah, but I mean there's "you shouldn't use this because Meta is bad" and then there's "no one wants to use this because it is, on a fundamental level, an incredibly stupid idea and I can't believe anyone thought this would ever catch on."

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[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 51 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I was struggling to think where i recognized that bit was but you just solved that. They want rent, never for you to own anything, much less anything tangible that cant be taken away or revoked or forced to surrender or relinquish

Appl does the same with music and videos and audiobooks and books They want to license it to you and for you to have zero access to the actual files and brainwash entire ongoing new generations to not even understand a file system/owning real files and knowing where to get basically any file you want. The whole notion of a file having tangible value and operable

[–] commander@lemmy.world 50 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Go Valve go. Screw Facebook/Meta, Google, Apple. I want the future of VR to be standard desktop Linux centric. The iOS/Android state of mobile is annoyingly restrictive compared to even Windows let alone desktop/server Linux

[–] QuandaleDingle@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Watch Valve put Proton on phones. It's going to be incredible.

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[–] Bongles@lemmy.zip 37 points 1 month ago (2 children)

One more piece of bad news for VR

VR is doing fine. It's a niche hobby for people like myself to feel like you're inside of a game, movie, or porn. If you're someone who does work on your own device, you can even work in VR.

The metaverse was a ridiculous idea, that is beaten by VRChat.

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[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 month ago

But what about the zero people who used it? Whatever will they do?

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago

But this time it will be totally different! They'll learn to love our AI slop! Trust me, bro!

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm sure all the two people that were using it are devastated.

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[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

Don’t worry. The billions Zuck dumped into crypto and NFTs will pay for the billions he dumped into VR.

He’s a genius, dontchaknow.

[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Meta Horizon Worlds is a giant unlicensed and unmoderated daycare.

[–] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

So there are people parking their toddlers in a VR world?

[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 month ago (3 children)

The overwhelming majority of vr world users are children ages 7-14. There are almost no adults. The adults that are there are trying to interact with kids in an environment where there is zero supervision.

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[–] Buffy@libretechni.ca 7 points 1 month ago

Yeah it makes the first experience with a Meta headset extremely awkward. You boot it up they and they really want you to go into these worlds. Okay, so I did. Immediately I'm bombarded by the sound of 20 unsupervised children raiding a virtual McDonald's. Okay, maybe I should find an 18+ world and try that. This was also a mistake.

[–] MacStainless@piefed.social 7 points 1 month ago
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