Three years ago, Mark Zuckerberg’s big day was a flop. At his company’s annual developer conference – then called Facebook Connect – he unveiled his grand plans to turn his trillion dollar social network into “a metaverse company.” He changed the name of his company to Meta, and we braced for a world where we would become one with our virtual avatars, who could maybe even one day have legs .
And yet, that seismic shift never happened. For the most part, the metaverse was smoke and mirrors. His company’s stock plummeted , and for the first time ever, Facebook wasn’t growing .
Then, Meta conducted several rounds of mass layoffs. It seemed like the fall of an empire, but Zuckerberg managed to reverse the fate of his sinking ship. In calls with concerned investors, he stopped using the word “ metaverse ,” and when the AI boom came around, he was thrilled to pivot to a new buzzword.
The stocks went up. As his company recovered from crisis, Zuckerberg had a glow-up himself – now, he has become something of a fashionista . While he used to be known for looking like a ghost in front of the Senate and awkwardly professing his love for barbecue sauce , he has an unexpected hint of swagger now.
But he isn’t just wearing Alexander McQueen suits, training with top MMA fighters, and calling it a day. Now, he’s making his own clothes with fashion designer Mike Amiri. So when Zuckerberg strolled on stage at this year’s Meta Connect event – three years after the .
