Meta меняет курс: сокращение инвестиций в метавселенную и новый фокус на поддержке пользователей Translation: Meta shifts gears: reducing investments in the metaverse and a new focus on user support.

Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is planning to significantly reduce funding for the metaverse division, which he previously touted as the company’s future and a key reason behind Facebook’s rebranding. Bloomberg reports this information citing unnamed sources.

According to the agency, company executives may cut the Reality Labs budget by 30%. This division is responsible for metaverse development, including the Horizon Worlds platform and the Quest VR headset line.

Such a substantial budget reduction is expected to lead to layoffs, although a final decision has yet to be made, Bloomberg noted.

Investors reacted positively to the news.

Last month, Zuckerberg held a series of meetings in Hawaii focusing on budget planning for 2026. The corporate leader ordered a 10% cut in expenses across all departments, describing it as a standard optimization measure.

The team working on the metaverse has been asked to cut their budget even more, as the company «has not faced the expected competition.» Since the initiative’s launch in 2021, the total losses for this division have exceeded $70 billion.

Zuckerberg has stopped mentioning the metaverse during the company’s earnings reports, shifting his focus to artificial intelligence and hardware innovations such as the smart glasses from Meta.

Meta has intensified its emphasis on customer support by launching a centralized help center for Facebook and Instagram users.

The corporation acknowledged that previous decisions «have not always met expectations.»

The new platform includes tools for reporting issues and recovering account access. Users will also receive responses through an AI-powered search function.

This new feature is available in the iOS and Android apps for users worldwide.

The AI assistant is designed to provide more personalized assistance. The company emphasized that the use of this technology has enhanced account security, reducing breaches by over 30%.

AI is deployed to combat phishing and identify suspicious login attempts. It also helps prevent erroneous account deactivations and speeds up the appeals process.

However, thousands of users express a different opinion, with many complaining about losing access to their accounts due to Meta’s errors, linking these incidents to malfunctions in the algorithms.

As account suspensions affect businesses, those impacted are threatening legal action. The situation has escalated to the point that a community has emerged on Reddit to coordinate lawsuits against the corporation.

The company believes the new support center will improve the situation through a centralized and streamlined account recovery process. The system will send more accurate notifications of suspicious activity and more effectively recognize users’ devices.

Meta is facing legal challenges in the EU.

The European Commission has initiated an antitrust investigation concerning the exclusive integration of the Meta AI chatbot within WhatsApp.

In October, the company changed its business API policies, prohibiting the use of general-purpose chatbots in the app. These changes will take effect in January but will not impact customer support tools.

«As a result of this new policy, competing AI providers may lose the ability to reach their customers via WhatsApp,» the regulator stated.

Recall that in September, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced the commencement of an investigation into seven tech companies producing chatbots for minors: Alphabet, Character.AI, Instagram, Meta, OpenAI, Snap, and xAI.