It's probably best to call the company Facebook again. It's been just 18 months since Mark Zuckerberg renamed his company "Meta" because he wanted to show everyone that the company will be fully aligned with the metaverse in the future.
Back then, in the fall of 2021, in the middle of the Corona pandemic, this seemed like a sensible idea. Maybe it still is today. The metaverse, a space for virtual gatherings with avatars, is gradually evolving. So is the technology behind it. Some companies are already experimenting with the sensible use – and yet: It just takes a while.
When the company cut thousands of jobs in recent months, it disproportionately hit the metaverse departments. Quietly, Facebook has long since returned to its social media: Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp.
Now Mark Zuckerberg also understands that he wants to escape this business. Social networks are not as stable a monopoly as was once thought, but the competition is fierce. Starting a new network is easy. So a new one is constantly forming somewhere, another attacker is constantly coming around the corner. If you're not careful, you can quickly get into enormous problems, as Zuckerberg can see just 50 kilometers away in San Francisco, namely on Twitter.
And then there are not only problems with the competition. Anyone who runs a social network has to deal constantly with angry parents and is constantly in public dispute about which statements should be blocked and which should not. Not a particularly cozy store, all things considered.
The innovator's dilemma spares no one
But it's not that easy to completely reinvent yourself. Meta is feeling this painfully right now. The company has lost a quarter of its profits, and the next hot thing that everyone is talking about and that you can sell well now is not the metaverse after all. Instead, artificial intelligence is suddenly at the forefront of sales talks, and even the developers have been surprised by its great success. Facebook is so far behind that it doesn't even want to keep its models secret anymore. Instead, the company is now disclosing it to scientists, hoping to get back into a leadership role.
The old innovator dilemma does not even spare the young Internet companies. It goes like this: Actually, you should throw yourself at the new technology, with full force. But the success of the new one is uncertain, and it does not only depend on one's own commitment. You can't neglect an old, functioning business model for this. The new technology often comes from young companies that have nothing to lose (and many of which fail along the way, but at relatively low cost).
Germany needs to focus more on start-ups
It is not easy to promote the new approaches and not to ignore the old business too early. Google is also not at the forefront of progress in artificial intelligence, there is not even a Chinese company. Instead, a remarkable combination is at the forefront at the moment: a young start-up, namely Open AI, in collaboration with an old company, namely Microsoft – a company that in the meantime seemed so far behind that it could confidently throw its old beliefs overboard.
And what do we learn from this now, except that innovation is difficult? Traditionally, Germany relies heavily on the fact that the old large corporations can already adapt to the new technology. They have done this remarkably well for decades, and yet too many new developments have passed the Germans by economically, even if the technology was invented in Germany.
But if even the heroes of Silicon Valley can't manage to reliably modernize middle-aged companies – maybe Germany should talk less about protecting old companies. And more about where new ones come from.