Snap, Inc. (SNAP) is "way ahead" of Facebook (FB) in developing the metaverse, Jefferies Analyst Brent Thill told Yahoo Finance Live in a segment on Tuesday.
"Metaverse" is a term used to describe a virtual environment that immerses users in an interconnected internet space. Certain companies have utilized metaverse-like features within their apps, especially in social media and online shopping.
“I mean, if you look at Snap today, they have the closest thing to the metaverse,” Thill said. Snapchat has developed an interface which allows users to create their own virtual emoji characters (dubbed Bitmojis), dress them in outfits, and place them on a 3D map on the app.
“You can try on clothes and see how they match right now with these augmented reality lenses,” Thill said. “I mean, Snap is, in my opinion, way ahead of Facebook there. So we've got a lot of work to do.”
Facebook has recently ventured into the metaverse, though the program is still in its infancy. The social media company announced Monday that it expected to heavily increase investment in augmented and virtual reality.
“We've said Snap is already ahead of them, in our opinion, in terms of these experiences,” Thill said. “So if you want to play the metaverse right now, I think Snap's a better way to play it. Facebook will get there.”
Thill stressed that Snap was far more popular among younger people than Facebook and even Instagram.
“If you look at where teenagers are spending time, they don't have their head down on their phone after school on Instagram,” he said. “They have their heads down on Snap because they can see their buddies on the Snap map. They can see all the stories and everything that's getting posted. They can see the video games, the content. And Facebook really doesn't have that level of detail.”
Facebook lacks the same depth and level of immersion of Snapchat’s virtual environment, Thill noted. “So if you go into Facebook Shops today, it's OK. It's not amazing,” Thill said. “But when you have a richer experience and you're able to put the pants and the shirt on or put the coat on, and look at, does this match my ski helmet or whatever you're doing, you can transact. And that is incredible for their commerce business repayments. It's great for their small business merchants.”
Facebook’s foray into the metaverse is part of a larger push to become more attractive to a younger demographic. Recent data suggests that one of the most pressing issues facing the company is falling youth engagement. According to documents accessed by Bloomberg, Facebook experienced a 16% year-over-year decline in the time spent using the platform among teens from 2020 to 2021. Young adults between 18 and 29 years old spent 5% less time on Facebook during the same period.
Creating a more immersive metaverse may help increase the social media giant’s success with Generation Z consumers, the company hopes. Andrew Bosworth, a longtime Facebook executive, was recently appointed chief technology officer and placed in charge of augmented and virtual reality for the company. 
“[We are] excited to get an early look at some of the technologies that will underpin the metaverse,” Bosworth said in a tweet earlier this month regarding Facebook’s attitudes towards work on the metaverse. “We work on several prototype headsets to prove out concepts, this is one of them.”
Ihsaan Fanusie is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @IFanusie.
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Flipboard, and LinkedIn
As cinemas continue to struggle, AMC Entertainment wants to sell its popcorn outside the theaters. The world’s biggest movie theater chain said Thursday it will begin selling its popcorn at malls, supermarkets, and convenience stores in the US next year, both as a freshly popped option and in microwaveable packages. With pandemic changing up consumer habits, the movie theater company will also start selling fresh popcorn for takeout, pickup, and delivery—ways of retrieving food that have boomed during the pandemic.
Squid Game's popularity in India and the cryptocurrency ecosystem's exponential growth made for a potent mix.
“Eternals,” one of Marvel's most ambitious efforts to expand its superhero universe, arrived in theaters with about $71 million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates.
Former 'Dancing With the Stars' judge and pro Julianne Hough proved she's the queen of fashion in her latest Instagram posts.
Some executives are comparing SHIB with the disaster of the dot-com bubble witnessed in the late 90s.
One step forward, two steps back.
'Today' show weather anchor Al Roker recently spoke out about former cast member Katie Couric's new tell-all memoir 'Going There.'
Why Mark Zuckerberg is trying to teleport away from Facebook's problems
"First time I ever experienced an audience booing at the end."View Entire Post ›
An Arizona State University student says she was nearly killed at Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival in Houston on Nov. 5 when the crowd began to surge toward the stage. Eight people died as a result, and she thanks a stranger for saving her life.
We've all imagined ourselves in ridiculous scenarios, but most of us don't post 'em on the internet as if they actually happened.View Entire Post ›
"Hey hun…"View Entire Post ›
The metaverse poses many of the same challenges for parents as online video games, only much more so.
'Dancing With the Stars' fans were outraged at 2021 host Tyra Banks when she kept commenting on season 30 contestant Suni Lee's apparent illness on Monday night.
A 9-foot-tall video game joystick made of wood, rubber and steel by a Dartmouth College professor Mary Flanagan made the Guinness World Records 2022.
Jemima Khan has said that she has withdrawn her support for The Crown, over its “disrespectful” depiction of Diana’s last years.
The actor thanked his wife for giving him a ‘gorgeous healthy daughter’ and people are, quite rightly, upset
"I just could never imagine the severity of the situation," Scott said in a video posted Saturday night.
"Baby you can BITE ME," Avril Lavigne captioned a short clip of herself and Travis Barker performing their upcoming collaboration "Bite Me" after signing with his DTA Records
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyOne year. That’s what I told myself. It didn’t matter if I liked it. I didn’t like taking cold showers, eating 25-cent gas station burritos that smelled like vomit, or sleeping on concrete in a sleeping bag either. I survived those things—like other poor kids who find the unimaginable easily imaginable.Sex with strangers was inconceivable, sure, but so was someone like me going to college. My parents didn’t. My brothers didn’t. I was

source