Facebook Bets Big On Virtual World

"Mark Zuckerberg says he has long imagined a virtual world where people work, play and interact. Now he is preparing to spend billions of dollars and years of effort at making that a reality so Facebook Inc. can prosper.

Facebook said on Monday that its spending on Facebook Reality Labs, where the company works on augmented and virtual reality, would dent total operating profit by around $10 billion this year. "I expect this investment to grow even further for each of the next several years," Mr. Zuckerberg said.

Facebook's chief executive has become one of the most vocal proponents of online worlds where people exist in immersive, virtual and shared spaces -- increasingly referred to as the metaverse. Rooted in science-fiction novels like "Ready Player One" and "Snow Crash," the metaverse represents a digital reality where people playing through avatars would be able to attend concerts with friends or try on clothes in stores, just as they would out in the real world. In some visions, they cut across technology platforms.

"Over the next decade, these new platforms are going to start to unlock the kinds of experiences that I've wanted to build since before I even started Facebook," Mr. Zuckerberg said Monday on an earnings call.

The move is emerging as central to Mr. Zuckerberg's push to serve younger adults. The experiences the company will introduce as it creates the metaverse should lure and excite such audiences, he said.

Realizing that vision will be neither fast, nor cheap. Analysts said some of the fundamental building blocks for the metaverse don't exist yet and will take time to build. "We see the full vision of the metaverse as decades away," Jefferies analysts said, even as they expressed a bullish outlook for the concept.

Facebook's total company expenses could jump as much as $27 billion next year, reaching $97 billion, the company said, as it spends on people and infrastructure. Capital expenditure on items such as network infrastructure and data centers is expected to jump almost 80% next year, the company said.

The eventual payoff, Mr. Zuckerberg indicated, could be far reaching, including boosting the company's role as an online marketplace. Facebook's revenue today is dominated by ad sales.

"If you're in the metaverse every day, then you'll need digital clothes and digital tools and different experiences. Our goal is to help the members reach a billion people and hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce," he said.

Mr. Zuckerberg's vision of users interacting more closely with its services takes shape as Facebook faces criticism from lawmakers, academics and users over revelations in The Wall Street Journal's Facebook Files series, which showed that the company knows that its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm. On Monday, he defended the company, saying, "I am proud of our record navigating the complex trade-offs involved in operating services at global scale and I am proud of the research and transparency we bring to our work."

Videogame companies and other tech giants also are racing to develop their metaverse platforms and establish early dominance in what could become a big moneymaker and permanently change the way people interact with one another.

Some early versions of what could be considered the metaverse already exist at certain companies. Epic Games Inc. hosted a Travis Scott concert within its massively popular "Fortnite" videogame a few months into the pandemic. More than 12 million people attended. Game company Roblox Corp. in May hosted an immersive experience to celebrate the designer brand Gucci's 100th anniversary where users could buy limited-edition items for their avatars. It also hosted a Twenty One Pilots concert last month.

Calculating the money to be made in the metaverse is difficult, said Jefferies analyst Andrew Uerkwitz, but the videogame business provides an indication of the market potential. "People are willing to spend $80 billion-plus annually on virtual goods," he said, signaling that the revenue generated in the metaverse "could be very very large."

Implementing the metaverse concepts will still require companies to overcome a mix of obstacles, analysts said.

Latency, for instance, the time it takes for data to travel from one point to another and back, is currently too slow to support the concept, Jefferies said in its report. Additionally, virtual currencies need to evolve further, according to the report, to properly develop metaverses as marketplaces.

Tech companies that want to become major players in the field will require strong videogames operations, said Michael Wolf, co-founder and chief executive of consulting firm Activate Inc. Some tech companies could end up paying big dollars to expand their gaming arms to boost their metaverse aspirations, he said at the Journal's Tech Live conference last week.

Facebook agreed in 2019 to acquire PlayGiga, a company based in Madrid that specializes in cloud-based gaming.

And Microsoft Corp. -- which owns Xbox and offers its own virtual-reality headset -- this year closed a $7.5 billion purchase of videogame company ZeniMax Media Inc.

In August, Facebook launched public testing of Horizon Workrooms, an app that lets people who are wearing its Oculus Quest 2 virtual-reality headsets enter virtual offices as avatars and participate in meetings while seeing their computer screen and board. The company recently said it planned to hire 10,000 workers in Europe over the next five years to help build the metaverse.

Mr. Zuckerberg, on the earnings call, said the financial payoff won't come soon. "Later in this decade is when we would sort of expect this to be more of a real business story."" [1]

1. Facebook Bets Big On Virtual World
Bobrowsky, Meghan.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 27 Oct 2021: A.1.  

 

Teksase (JAV) išdygs 3D spausdintų namų kvartalai

 „Didysis namų statytojas bendradarbiauja su Teksaso startuoliu, kad sukurtų 100 3-D spausdintų namų bendruomenę netoli Ostino. Tai būtų didžiausia tokio tipo būsto plėtra JAV.

 

    „Lennar Corp.“ ir statybos technologijų įmonė „Icon“ kitais metais planuoja pradėti statybas Ostino metro zonoje, pranešė bendrovės. Nors „Icon“ ir kiti anksčiau statė 3-D spausdintus namus, šios pastangos išbandys technologijos gebėjimą statyti namus ir sukurti pirkėjų paklausą daug didesniu mastu.

 

    „Mes tarsi baigiame studijas nuo vienišų ir dešimčių namų iki šimtų namų“, – sakė „Icon“ generalinis direktorius Jasonas Ballardas.

 

    Jei 3-D spausdinimas pasiseks šiuo ambicingesniu lygiu, jis galėtų padėti išspręsti JAV nuolatinį parduodamų namų trūkumą, ypač už prieinamą kainą. Hipotekos finansavimo bendrovė „Freddie Mac“ apskaičiavo, kad 2020 m. pabaigoje nacionalinis vienos šeimos namų deficitas siekė 3,8 mln.

 

    Tiekimo grandinės atsilikimas pandemijos metu stabdė namų statybą, o darbo jėgos trūkumas trukdė gamybai daugelį metų.

 

    „Kvalifikuoti statybininkai yra mirštanti veislė“, – sakė Ericas Federas, LenX, Lennar rizikos kapitalo ir inovacijų padalinio, prezidentas. "Taigi turi būti alternatyvių statybos sprendimų, kurie padėtų išspręsti šį darbo jėgos trūkumą."

 

    Dauguma naujai pastatytų vienos šeimos namų JAV yra statomi vietoje ir įrėminti, naudojant medžio konstrukcijas, pagal tradicinius statybos metodus.

 

    „Icon“ 3D spausdintuose namuose vietoj to naudojamas betoninis rėmas. Jo 15,5 pėdų aukščio spausdintuvai gali per savaitę pastatyti 2000 kvadratinių pėdų vieno aukšto namo išorinių ir vidinių sienų sistemą, sakė J. Ballardas. Spausdintuvas išspaudžia betoną sluoksniais, kaip dantų pastą iš tūbelės. Jis sakė, kad mašinos gali spausdinti išlenktas sienas, todėl galima sukurti kūrybiškesnį namų dizainą.

 

    Lennar namus užbaigs tradiciniais statybos būdais. Savaitė, per kurią „Icon“ atspausdina sienų sistemą, užtrunka maždaug tiek pat laiko, kiek reikia namo įrėminimui ir gipskartoniui, naudojant tradicinius statybos metodus, tačiau Lennar teigė tikintis, kad ateityje gali paspartinti šį procesą. 3-D spausdintus namus taip pat galima statyti pigiau ir naudojant mažiau atliekų, palyginti su įprastais naujai pastatytais namais, sakė Icon.

 

    „Icon“ spausdinant sienų sistemą reikia tik trijų darbuotojų, kurie pakeičia net 6–12 rėmų ir gipso kartono montuotojų, reikalingų įprastinei statybai, sakė Lennaras.

 

    Pirkėjai nebūtinai turėtų tikėtis nuolaidos pagal rinkos kursą. Lenar nenustatė, kaip bus įkainoti namai naujoje bendruomenėje, bet jie bus panašūs į kitus Lennar namus rajone, sakė p. Federas. Remiantis Ostino nekilnojamojo turto valdybos duomenimis, vidutinė namų pardavimo kaina Ostino metro rajone rugsėjo mėnesį buvo 450 000 dolerių.

 

    „Icon“ jau pastatė 10 dviejų miegamųjų namų Tabasko mieste, Meksikoje, ir septynis mažus vieno miegamojo namus Ostine. Šiais metais „Icon“ su kūrėju „3Strands“ pastatė keturis vienos šeimos namus Ostine. „Icon“ nuo 2017 m. įkūrimo surinko 266 mln. Lenaras ir namų statybininkas D.R. Abu „Horton Inc.“ yra investuotojai.

 

    Bandymas išplėsti 3D spausdinimo technologiją kelia naujų iššūkių. „Icon“ projektus leido vietos jurisdikcijos, tačiau gauti savivaldybės patvirtinimą gali būti iššūkis naujose rinkose, nes technologija yra nepažįstama. Vartotojai taip pat gali skeptiškai vertinti šią koncepciją, o kai kuriuos gali atbaidyti 3D spausdintų namų išvaizda. Pavyzdžiui, „Icon“ namų išorėje ir kai kuriose vidinėse sienose yra horizontalios briaunelės, pagamintos sluoksniuotos spaudos technikos.

 

    Kita vertus, pirkėjus greičiausiai pritrauks namai, pastatyti naudojant mažiau atliekų, o tai turėtų reikšti išlaidų taupymą, sakė butiko investicijų banko būsto pramonei vadovė Margaret Whelan.

 

    Anksčiau „Icon“ namų kaina buvo nedidelė, palyginti su rinkos kaina. Keturių namų projektas Ostine su 3Strands buvo pirmasis bandymas statyti dviejų aukštų namus, naudojant 3-D spausdinimą pirmojo aukšto sienoms, o antri aukštai buvo pastatyti įprastai.

 

    Planuojamas dviejų miegamųjų namas kainavo 450 000 dolerių, o parduotas už 530 000 dolerių, sakė Gary O'Dell, „3Strands“ generalinis direktorius. Tuo tarpu keturių miegamųjų 3D spausdintas namas buvo parduotas už beveik 800 000 dolerių. Namų kaina buvo šiek tiek mažesnė už panašius namus šiame rajone, sakė p. O'Dell.

 

    Kitos firmos taip pat skuba spausdinti namus. „Mighty Buildings“, statybos technologijų įmonė Oklande, Kalifornijoje, pranešė, kad kitais metais planuoja pradėti statyti 3D spausdintus namus 15 sklypų bendruomenei Kalifornijos Koačelos slėnyje. Preliminarus bendruomenės poreikis buvo toks didelis, kad kūrėjas Palari Inc. planuoja pridėti daugiau sklypų, sakė Palari generalinis direktorius Basil Starr." [1]

Lietuvoje irgi trūksta statybininkų, ypač po to, kai Landsbergiai nesėkmingai pabandė organizuoti perversmą Baltarusijoje. Dabar migrantai baltarusiai sunkiai patenka į Lietuvą. Ukrainiečiai yra vagys ir tinginiai. Gal ir mes imamės namus spausdinti?

1. 3-D Printed Housing To Sprout Up in Texas
Friedman, Nicole.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 27 Oct 2021: A.1

3-D Printed Housing To Sprout Up in Texas

"A major home builder is teaming with a Texas startup to create a community of 100 3-D printed homes near Austin, gearing up for what would be by far the biggest development of this type of housing in the U.S.

Lennar Corp. and construction-technology firm Icon are poised to start building next year at a site in the Austin metro area, the companies said. While Icon and others have built 3-D printed housing before, this effort will test the technology's ability to churn out homes and generate buyer demand on a much larger scale.

"We're sort of graduating from singles and dozens of homes to hundreds of homes," said Jason Ballard, Icon's CEO.

If 3-D printing succeeds at this more-ambitious level, it could offer a response to the U.S.'s chronic shortage of homes for sale, especially in the affordable price range. Mortgage-finance company Freddie Mac estimated that the national deficit of single-family homes stood at 3.8 million units at the end of 2020.

Supply-chain backlogs during the pandemic have pinched home construction, while labor shortages have hampered production for years.

 

"Skilled tradesmen are a dying breed," said Eric Feder, president of LenX, Lennar's venture-capital and innovation unit. "So there have to be alternative building solutions to help with this labor deficit."

 

The majority of newly built single-family homes in the U.S. are constructed on-site and framed in wood using traditional construction methods.

 

Icon's 3-D printed houses use concrete framing instead. Its 15.5-foot-tall printers can build the exterior and interior wall system for a 2,000-square-foot, one-story house in a week, Mr. Ballard said. The printer squeezes out concrete in layers, like toothpaste out of a tube. The machines can print curved walls, allowing for more creative house designs, he said.

 

Lennar will complete the houses using traditional construction methods. The week it takes Icon to print a wall system is about the same amount of time it takes to frame and drywall a home using traditional construction methods, but Lennar said it hopes it can speed up that process in the future. 3-D printed homes can also be built more cheaply and with less waste compared with typical newly built houses, Icon said.

 

Icon requires only three workers on-site when printing a wall system, replacing as many as six to 12 framers and drywall installers needed for conventional construction, Lennar said.

 

Buyers shouldn't necessarily count on a discount to the market's going rate. Lennar hasn't determined how the homes in the new community will be priced but they will be similar to other Lennar homes in the area, Mr. Feder said. The median home-sale price in the Austin metro area in September was $450,000, according to the Austin Board of Realtors.

Icon has already built 10 two-bedroom homes in Tabasco, Mexico, and seven one-bedroom tiny homes in Austin. This year, Icon built four single-family homes in Austin with developer 3Strands. Icon has raised $266 million in funding since its 2017 founding. Lennar and home builder D.R. Horton Inc. are both investors.

Trying to scale up 3-D printing technology brings new challenges. Icon's projects have been permitted by local jurisdictions, but obtaining municipal approvals could be a challenge in new markets, since the technology is unfamiliar. Consumers might also be skeptical of the concept and some might be put off by the look of 3-D printed homes. Icon's homes, for example, have horizontal ridges in the exterior and some interior walls from the layered printing technique.

On the other hand, buyers are likely to be attracted to homes built with less waste, which should translate to cost savings, said Margaret Whelan, chief executive of Whelan Advisory, a boutique investment bank for the housing industry.

In the past, Icon's houses have been priced at a modest discount to the market rate. Its four-home project in Austin with 3Strands was its first attempt to build two-story houses, using 3-D printing for the first-floor walls while the second floors were conventionally built.

A two-bedroom house in the development was priced at $450,000 and sold for $530,000, said Gary O'Dell, chief executive of 3Strands. A four-bedroom 3-D printed home, meanwhile, sold for nearly $800,000. The homes were priced slightly below comparable houses in the area, Mr. O'Dell said.

Other firms are also rushing to print out homes. Mighty Buildings, a construction-technology company in Oakland, Calif., said it plans to start construction on 3-D printed homes for a 15-lot community in California's Coachella Valley next year. Preliminary demand for the community has been so strong that Palari Inc., the developer, is planning to add more lots, Palari CEO Basil Starr said." [1]

 There is also a shortage of builders in Lithuania, especially after the Landsbergiai tried unsuccessfully to organize a coup in Belarus. Now Belarusian migrants find it difficult to enter Lithuania. Ukrainians are thieves and lazy. Maybe we start home printing too?

1. 3-D Printed Housing To Sprout Up in Texas
Friedman, Nicole.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 27 Oct 2021: A.1