Meta Is Getting Desperate To Reach Younger Audiences With A New Rude Chatbot.
Meta Is Getting Desperate To Reach Younger Audiences With A New Rude Chatbot.
It's going to be released as soon as this week.
⏱️ It’s Monday, and it could very much be your best Monday ever if you allow it to be. Too lazy to read for 5 minutes? Here’s the TLDR Summary:
∞ Meta has been losing the young audience first to Snapchat, then more recently to TikTok.
🤖 So they’re now working on new AI chatbot characters that answer questions, hoping that they’d reach those young audiences, according to The Wall Street Journal.
🙃 Among the bots, there’s a sarcastic one called “Bob the robot.”
👻 They’re following the footsteps of Snapchat after Snap launched My AI (a chatbot built on OpenAI’s GPT)
🦎 Zuckerberg is missing the simple big picture — future generations are not interested in Meta anymore because it’s too old and not cool.
Having a Facebook account – from cool to fool.
I’m not sure how old are you. I don’t have such statistics in my newsletter. I’d assume you’re in the range of 24-55 (It’s a big range, but that’s my guess.)
In that case, you probably have a Facebook account. Do you know who doesn’t have a Facebook account? Most kids these days. Let me tell you a fun story.
Ten years ago, I was super duper excited about entrepreneurship and decided to work on an edu-tech product. I was working on an AI chatbot way before ChatGPT was cool (which is a catastrophic mistake, but that’s not the point.)
So then I pitched my product to high school students (these people are now 25 years old.)
We presented an awesome product, and you know what? The students loved our pitch and were sold on trying it. So then we tell them: “Well, we made it easy for you! You can talk to our chatbot directly on Facebook!”
Then we would just see this face → 😬, followed by, “I don’t have Facebook.”
I was personally shocked at that time. How do they check out social media? I always thought they were more addicted to it. I was not wrong, but I was asking the wrong question.
“We use Instagram,” almost all of them said.
So then I realized that Zuckerberg made quite a smart business move. He purchased an entire generation’s attention by acquiring Instagram for $1 billion. I didn’t realize it, but I turned out to be one of those people whose attention he purchased.
I couldn’t care less what online charts would say; I’m pretty confident that the usage of Facebook as an app is in decline. If it isn’t, then it will decline because of a single obvious reason — young generations are not using it anymore. Heck, I’m 30, and I’m not using it anymore.
Instagram, though, has been dominant for quite an amount of years. Until something happened, that shook up Zuckerberg a bit. Something with the name of TikTok.
It’s an ocean, and the blue shark is weak.
So Zuckerberg had been enjoying the top spot for quite a while. Then, somehow, the tech world moved too fast, and he made some people mad by renaming the whole company to Meta.
Whilst investors were mad, and he was trying to win them back over, TikTok rose. Every single child was doing TikTok dances because it was cool. I’m pretty confident that if the company was American-born (or not owned by Bytedance) and politics were not involved, TikTok would be much larger by now.
Snap used the AI movement as well to serve some of its young audiences and created a chatbot called My AI.
Nevertheless, Meta can not afford to acquire TikTok. It’s owned by Bytedance, which is valued at over $220 billion.
So now, Meta is in a pickle. Some people use Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. But they know that in ten years, younger generations will grow and appear more, while older generations will keep on disappearing.
In other words, TikTok-like apps would be used more, and Facebook-owned apps would be used less.
But I wouldn’t bet on TikTok; there is too much politics in place. However, I also don’t bet on Meta. The ocean of competition is finally becoming a bit blue. There’s an opportunity for new players to acquire younger generations, and every single social media company knows that.
So what does Zuckerberg do about this? Meta creates AI chatbot characters that are sassy.
When your dad tries to fit in.
Let me tell you another tale. During the summer, I met my girlfriend’s brother and his new girlfriend. The brother and the new girlfriend are 21 years old. There’s quite an age gap between me and them that I didn’t realize.
Jokingly, I would just fit in by dressing in a long tank top and saying sheesh and cringe for no reason. I know what cringe is, but sheesh.. that generation skipped me. So I’d just say it for fun in absolutely wrong situations.
I would make myself laugh, but the truth is, it’s quite obvious that I’m too old for sheeshing, and they know it.
Facebook is old as well; not a lot use it anymore.
Insta is also getting older, so if TikTok is saying “sheesh,” Insta might eventually not know what it means.
Developing AI chatbots with personalities that can say “sheesh” is the same as me trying to fit in with 21-year-olds; it’s just funny.
Meta is in a tough spot, but that’s their industry and what it takes to stay on top.
They’ve missed out on innovation;
They’ve missed out on acquisitions;
Now, they might miss out on a generation.
That’s my take on what’s going on in the tech world this week. I’ll leave you now with two things.
Have a wonderful, productive week! I believe in you.
Sheesh.