TronWeekly

Crypto World News

You are here: Home / Archives for Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg

DOGE Creator Slams Mark Zuckerberg’s Copycat Platform, Predicting Armageddon

by

Billy Markus, one of the original creators of the popular meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin, has expressed his views on a new social media application called Threads. The app was developed by Meta, a company founded by Mark Zuckerberg, or more precisely, by Instagram, which is owned by Meta. There has been a significant amount of discussion on Twitter recently following Meta’s launch of what some perceive as a potential threat to Twitter.

Critics have accused Mark Zuckerberg of imitating Twitter, continuing his company’s aggressive approach, which seems to involve creating clones of competitors or incorporating similar features into their own applications. For instance, when Mark Zuckerberg failed to acquire Snapchat, he instead purchased Instagram and incorporated the Reels feature, resulting in a substantial user migration from the TikTok app. Prior to that, he acquired WhatsApp as a possible rival to Messenger.

In response to a tweet by popular Twitter user “greg” (@greg16676935420) with a substantial following of half a million users, Markus offered his commentary. “Greg” had expressed support for Elon Musk, emphasizing that the tech visionary had invested $44 billion in Twitter, humorously claiming that Musk had personally invented the platform through sheer effort and dedication.

Markus corrected this notion, reminding “greg” that Twitter was actually created by Jack Dorsey, not Elon Musk. However, Markus added a facetious remark, stating that Musk had invented oxygen to sustain human life, implying that Musk advocated for free speech on Twitter. In contrast, Markus sarcastically attributed the creation of carbon monoxide, a toxic gas, to Zuckerberg, insinuating that Zuckerberg’s actions were aimed at harming people.

The Controversy Surrounding Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads App: Unveiling the Criticisms

Billy Markus and numerous others express concerns primarily rooted in Meta’s track record of scandals related to privacy breaches and heavy censorship on their social media platforms, such as Facebook. These concerns arise because Elon Musk, from the outset, declared his intention to acquire Twitter in order to uphold freedom of speech, with only minimal censorship measures in place, primarily targeting issues like terrorism and user harassment. Given Meta’s history, there is skepticism regarding whether Mark Zuckerberg will adopt a similar approach with his newly launched Threads app.

Mark Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg has stated his intention to create a “friendly version” of Twitter, seizing certain opportunities that Twitter may have overlooked. However, criticism has also been directed towards Elon Musk regarding his management of Twitter and his decision to downsize the workforce following the acquisition of the company.

In a recent tweet, Musk playfully mentioned the possibility of a cage fight between him and Zuckerberg taking place in the Colosseum. However, with the emergence of the Threads app, this seemingly lighthearted notion of a physical confrontation between these tech moguls might now take on a more serious and significant connotation.

Meta Announces New Metaverse & Web3-Aligned Online Creator Tools

by

Meta unveiled a host of features for online content creators that it claims would increase the scope for revenue generation, allow creative expression, and enhance user engagement.

Announcing the same, CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said it is expanding some of its current monetization tools to attract more creators.

First, creators would not be charged for online events, fan subscriptions, or badges, until 2024. which was previously kept till 2023.

Besides that, Meta is testing a marketplace on Instagram to bring creators and brands together for future collaboration via a partnership messaging folder within Instagram DMs.

As per sources, the proposed creator’s marketplace would compete with TikTok’s similar marketplace, which is the video app’s in-house influencer marketing platform, in a bid to woo more creators to its platform.

In terms of the firm’s existing monetization tools, the chief exec announced enhancing current offerings like the Facebook Reels Play Bonus program to onboard more creators and also let creators cross-post their Instagram Reels to Facebook and monetize them there as well.

The Reels Play Bonus program is a part of Meta’s larger $1 billion creator fund and will go live next week.

Meta’s NFT Display Now On Facebook

After Meta’s pilot testing of NFT display options on Instagram back in May, the firm is now expanding the test pool, bringing the digital collectibles feature to Facebook, ‘starting with a small group of US creators’.

For U.S.-based influencers, one is eligible to apply for the Facebook Reels Play bonus program if they have created more than five Reels and have a total of a minimum of 100k views in the past 30 days.

Not only that, the firm is planning to extend a virtual platform called Facebook Stars to all eligible creators from now on. Here fans can offer support for their favorite creators and buy merchandise.

“Beginning this week, creators who have at least 1,000 followers over the last 60 days will be eligible to onboard. Creators must be in a region where Stars are available and must also meet Meta’s Partner Monetization Policies and Content Monetization Policies”, the report read.

Meta to roll out ‘Zuck Bucks’ for Instagram and Facebook Users

by

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is working on virtual currency for Facebook and Instagram users, dubbed “Zuck bucks” by staff.

It is part of a suite of goods aimed at reducing his platforms’ reliance on advertising in the future metaverse.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is working on a variety of virtual goods, including digital tokens and “creator coins,” to diversify revenue and re-energize its user base, which is rapidly flocking to upstart competitors like TikTok.

Meta is the largest social media network provider, with revenues rising 37% to $118 billion in 2021.

As advertisers clamored to access Facebook and Instagram’s 4.9 billion monthly active users, TikTok has built up a significant non-ads economy centered on in-app purchases and e-commerce.

Meta is looking for alternative revenue streams

As the popularity of its key social networking sites, such as Facebook and Instagram, declines, the firm, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is looking for new income sources and features to attract and keep users, a trend that threatens its $118 billion-a-year ad-based business model.

According to many people familiar with the work, Facebook’s finance unit, Meta Financial Technologies, has been researching the establishment of a virtual currency for the metaverse, which employees internally have called “Zuck Bucks.”

“Social tokens” or “reputation tokens” are examples of products that might be utilized as incentives by consumers. It’s also looking into “creator coins,” which influencers on Instagram might use.

TikTok, like Amazon’s Twitch, has a tipping system where fans may buy coins and then use them to buy presents for their favorite producers.

Creators may also buy coins to utilize tools like Promote to raise the popularity of their TikTok videos and gain more viewers or followers.

The projects, sponsored by Facebook’s financial department, Meta Financial Technologies, come after the company’s ill-fated attempt to develop a worldwide cryptocurrency, dubbed Libra and subsequently Diem, which was shelved earlier this year because of regulatory concerns in the United States.

That wasn’t the first time Facebook has considered entering the virtual money realm. It introduced Facebook Credits in 2009 to allow in-app purchases in then-popular games like Zynga’s FarmVille.

While it was a success, it was shut down four years later due to Facebook’s worldwide expansion, which necessitated costly currency changes.

Meta is also considering entering the realm of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), with ambitions to integrate them into social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg Reveals That Instagram Will Entail NFT Features Soon

by

NFTs will be available on Instagram shortly. Mark Zuckerberg stated that digital artifacts would be coming to Instagram “in the near term” while speaking at SXSW.

“We’re working on bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near term,” he said. He didn’t go into specifics about how it would work, but he did say that individuals would be able to show off their current NFTs and maybe mint new ones.

“I’m not ready to announce exactly what that’s going to be today. But over the next several months, the ability to bring some of your NFTs in, hopefully over time be able to mint things within that environment.”

NFTs had already piqued the curiosity of Zuckerberg and other executives, with Instagram’s senior executive Adam Mosseri stating that the firm was “actively researching” the technology. The Financial Times reported that the business hoped to include NFTs into its crypto wallet Novi in January.

Mark Zuckerberg envisions NFTs as a part of everyday activities

NFTs might one day play a part in the company’s future metaverse, according to Zuckerberg, who spoke on Tuesday. “I’d hope that the apparel that your avatar wears in the metaverse can be basically minted as an NFT, and you can transport it between your different places,” he added.

“There’s like several technical stuff that needs to be sorted out before it can truly be smooth to happen.”

Zuckerberg, famed for wearing the same gray t-shirt every day, also said he now shops mainly on Instagram and Facebook. “I probably bought most of the items I wear through Instagram, Facebook Shops, or advertisements,” he explained.

Zuckerberg’s comments back up a January story from the Financial Times that Meta was looking at bringing NFTs to Instagram.

Both Facebook and Instagram were in the midst of the building and “readying” features that would enable users to show NFTs as profile images, as well as a prototype system that would allow users to mint new NFTs on either site at the time.

Although Mark did not comment on this specific feature of NFTs, there appears to be internal debate about establishing a marketplace for users to purchase and trade NFTs.

Last December, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stated that NFTs were an “interesting arena” in which Instagram might actively participate to “support creators.”

Mark Zuckerberg-backed stablecoin project to fade out soon?

by

Mark Zuckerberg-backed stablecoin project Diem seemed to be headed for a dead-end as reports emerged that the Diem Association is supposedly ‘weighing a sale of its assets as a way to return capital to its investor members.’

However it remains unknown with regards to the kind of asset the Diem Association owns, but Bloomberg reported that the group is in talks with investment bankers about selling its intellectual property and finding “a new home for the engineers that developed the technology.”

Having said that, a sale would likely be the final blow to the crypto project that Mark Zuckerberg had once trumpeted. As a matter of fact, on many occasions plans to get the stablecoin off the ground continued to meet tough opposition from reasons such as regulatory pushback and lawmaker concerns.

Things didn’t improve even after rebranding Diem as Libra as several high-profile partners backed out of the project in 2019.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Diem project was scaled down owing to regulatory pressure?

As per media reports, negotiations were not successful between Diem and Fed when the latter did not approve the proposal. Last summer, Facebook started a pilot testing of Novi, the cryptocurrency wallet previously known as Calibra. But the fact that Novi was forced to launch without support for Diem and instead it used a different stablecoin called the Pax Dollar was enough to indicate that Diem’s future remained uncertain.

Things looked hopeful when Facebook exec David Marcus, who was hired by CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2014 from PayPal to oversee its Messenger app as well as the social network’s crypto plans, said at the time that Facebook remained committed to Diem.

“I do want to be clear that our support for Diem hasn’t changed and we intend to launch Novi with Diem once it receives regulatory approval and goes live,” he wrote. But a month later Marcus announced that he was leaving Facebook. Still, there is no official confirmation from the Diem Association regarding the future of the project.

A representative for the Diem Association Michael Crittenden cited the original Bloomberg’s report on the matter and did say it contained unspecified “factual errors,” but declined to elaborate or comment further into the specifics.