Facebook cancels biggest event of the year – here’s the reason why

FACEBOOK will not bring employees together for its semi-annual F8 conference this year.

The company, which rebranded as Meta in October 2021, has prioritized developing the metaverse with artificial intelligence.

Mark Zuckerberg is the largest individual shareholder in Meta and has a net worth of nearly $90billion dollars

The cancellation was first announced in a blog post authored by Diego Duarte Moreira, Meta’s Director of Products and Partnerships.

In the past, the F8 conference would kick off with a keynote speech from founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who would announce groundbreaking innovations for the company’s future.

During 2010’s F8 summit, the company introduced the integration of the like button to websites outside of Facebook – a feature still very much in use today.

This year’s F8 would’ve come at a time where the company is pivoting its focus toward the metaverse.

“Similar to years past, we are taking a brief break in programming and will not hold F8 in 2022 while we gear up on new initiatives that are all tailored towards the next chapter of the internet, and the next chapter of our company too: building the metaverse,” Moreira wrote in the blog post.

It’s been reported that Zuckerberg envisions that artificial intelligence will be responsible for developing a universal language translator and privacy mechanisms for use in the metaverse.

Zuckerberg, 37, has a pronounced fascination with artificial intelligence, once calling AI “perhaps the most important foundational technology of our time.”

Meta held virtual F8 summits through the apex of the COVID-19 pandemic but will take the first hiatus since 2013.

Moreira’s post added that the company would host its “inaugural business messaging event” called Conversations in May.

Conversations will be focused on direct messaging using Meta’s family of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

The company also hosts Connect, a conference dedicated solely to augmented and virtual reality.

It was at the 2021 Connect conference that Zuckerberg announced the company would rebrand as Meta.

Other competitors are working to build virtual reality hubs for users to visit.

But few other companies have the user database and infrastructure that Meta does, giving them a huge leg up in the quest to conquer the unbuilt virtual world.