Meta will open physical stores to showcase the devices to access the metaverse Mark Zuckerberg's bet is to become the preferred hardware manufacturer for users who want to enter the metaverse.
By Eduardo Scheffler Zawadzki Edited by Eduardo Scheffler Zawadzki
This article was translated from our Spanish edition.
Although it sounds paradoxical, every experience in the metaverse begins in the physical world . A real person must use a device to connect to a virtual world. Meta , Mark Zuckerberg 's company once called Facebook, knows this well and is therefore developing a plan to create physical stores where users can test the devices that will allow them to access virtual universes.
The company announced that the first of these stores will open on May 9 at its campus in Berlingame, California. "At Meta Store, we want you to interact with everything. We want you to collect things. We want you to feel it," explained the company through a statement on its official website . Various products such as the Meta Quest 2 immersive viewer console, the Portal video conferencing system, and Ray-Ban Stories glasses that allow the wearer to share what they see while wearing them will be available for testing at the store.
For Martin Gilliard, director of the Meta Store , what users need to be encouraged to enter the metaverse is to try it: "Once people experience the technology, they can better appreciate it. If we did our job well, people should leave and tell their friends to go to the Meta Store."
The idea that Meta experiments with physical stores is not accidental: the company is looking for ways to diversify its lines of business and one of Mark Zuckerberg's strong bets is to become a hardware manufacturer . Gilliard explains: "The Meta Store will help people understand how our products can be the gateway to the metaverse in the future. We don't sell the metaverse in our store, but we do hope that people walk in knowing a little more about how our products will help them connect with it."
