Facebook's Cryptocurrency failure scraps Metaverse plans?

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Despite all the fanfare around Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to create a cryptocurrency that was predicted to bring in “billions” in new revenue, the project has petered out with barely whimper. Meta Platforms Inc., the company formerly known as Facebook, agreed to sell assets tied to the project born in 2019 as Libra and now known as Diem to Silvergate Capital Corp. for about $200 million. With Diem’s director jumping ship last November and its ambitions scaled back amid fierce pushback from regulators and central banks, the project’s death was anticipated by some. But a post mortem tells us something more troubling: Facebook continues to struggle to develop new services without buying them, and in a toughening regulatory environment, that does not bode well for Zuckerberg’s metaverse plans, a pivot he has bet the entire company on.

Among the history of Facebook’s innovation misfires: a home screen for Android phones that flopped soon after its 2013 launch; Snapchat competitors Poke and Slingshot (2014 and 2015); and mobile-development platform Parse. The company also floundered on efforts to build its own versions of Amazon Inc.’s Alexa.

Facebook’s workforce shines at executing and scaling, but software developers who want to build innovative products tend to go elsewhere. At Facebook, many find themselves under pressure to ensure a new prototype or feature contributes to ad dollars.

It helps that the right acquisition can open the door to new markets. For instance, the iPhone’s upcoming payment feature for merchants is possible in large part because Apple Inc. paid $100 million for Canadian startup Mobeewave, which makes payment technology for smartphones.

And while Zuckerberg did steer Facebook’s rapid pivot to mobile in 2012,