Meta keeps trying to invent the future. It hasn’t worked yet

Facebook kickstarted the modern social media age in the early 2000s. But its parent company Meta’s ambitions to expand over the last decade haven’t had nearly the same success. It’s still apparently trying again anyway, with the latest big thing: humanoid robots.

A new Meta team is working on robots capable of doing household tasks, Bloomberg reported Friday. But the broader goal, according to the report, is to create a platform that other companies can use to build their robots – a feat that would make Meta a critical part of the robotics industry.

And Meta needs that kind of win. While its social media apps have proven to be wildly popular, it lost the race to control the devices you actually use those apps on – namely phones. Apple and Google quickly dominated the smartphone landscape in the early 2000s, leaving little room for anyone else, including Meta, to compete.

Now, Meta is seemingly trying to make sure it doesn’t miss out again. Over the last half-decade, it’s made an aggressive push into artificial intelligence and the metaverse to get ahead of whatever the next big thing may be – and to escape Facebook’s shadow. An expansion into robotics would be a big step toward that goal.

But the company will face competition. Tesla flaunted its humanoid Optimus robot at last year’s Cybercab launch event, and chipmaker Nvidia announced new AI tech designed to power robots at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

A Meta spokesperson did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Waiting for the metaverse to happen

Meta’s biggest effort to move beyond Facebook came in 2021 when it rebranded itself as Meta to orient the company around the “metaverse,” a broad term for digital communal spaces typically in virtual reality.

It was a statement that Meta is far more than just a social media app, but a platform that would help define the next era of computing.

“We are at the beginning of the next chapter for the internet, and it’s the next chapter for our company too,” the company said in its 2021 founder’s letter, signed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Still, nearly half a decade later, the metaverse remains niche, unlike the ubiquitous smartphone.

Just 7.7 million mixed reality headsets are expected to ship globally in 2025, according to market research firm the International Data Corporation (IDC), compared to the 331.7 million smartphones estimated to have shipped worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2024 alone. Still, Meta is by far the headset leader, with the IDC reporting that it accounts for nearly 71% of the market.

Consumer flops

Meta’s previous efforts to branch out from social media didn’t resonate broadly with consumers.

In 2013 it launched a Facebook-branded phone in partnership with Taiwanese tech company HTC, once a major player in the Android phone market. But shortly after its release, AT&T dropped the device’s price down to just $0.99 in what was an unmistakable sign of poor sales – and perhaps an indication that consumers didn’t want more Facebook on their phone other than in its app.

Meta also tried to get in on the smart home business with a video calling device called the Meta Portal (initially Facebook Portal), which in launched in 2018 but has since been discontinued.