The Facebook CEO 'teleported' a cartoon version of himself to hurricane-hit Puerto Rico to show off how awesome social VR is. This was a mistake
Back in 2014, Mark Zuckerberg unzipped his wallet and splashed $2 billion (£1.5bn) on the virtual reality hardware of Oculus. At the time, the Rift's headset had been a runaway crowdfunding success but remained out of reach of consumers. "Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures," the Facebook founder wrote in a status update at the time.
Zuckerberg's vision for virtual reality has always involved a social aspect, he's often touted the potential communication benefits of strapping on a headset and chatting with friends. But his early vision probably didn't include a tone deaf appearance of a cartoon Zuckerberg in a disaster zone.
At the annual Oculus Connect conference in San Jose, Zuckerberg and Rachel Franklin, Facebook’s head of social virtual reality, "teleported" themselves to Puerto Rico. Three weeks ago Hurricane Maria caused devastation on the island, killing an unknown number of people, leaving millions without power, and an ongoing aid crisis.
During the presentation of Facebook's VR tech, the two executives took a "magical" journey through some of Caribbean island's devastated towns and cities. The 360-degree video was shot by news organisation NPR and had an animated Zuckerberg and Franklin overlaid using the Oculus and Facebook tech. In front of a live audience the pair travelled past floored houses and rescue workers dolling out aid. “This street is completely flooded,” Zuckerberg exclaimed while looking around. "It's crazy to feel like you're in the middle of it," Franklin said.
"One of the things that's really magical about virtual reality is you can get the feeling you're really in a place," Zuckerberg said. "We're looking around and it feels like we're really here in Puerto Rico. It's obviously a tough place to get to now and a lot of people are really with the aftermath of the hurricanes."
While Facebook responded to the Puerto Rico disaster by turning on Safety Check, allowing community support and donating money, the VR flyover was ill-judged at best.
Promoting the idea of chatting with friends, who aren't in the same room, is much more suited to showing off your pets – as Zuckerberg did in a second demonstration – than natural disasters. Cartoon avatars also don't feel suited to the sensitive situation of an island that will take many months, if not years, to recover.
For Zuckerberg, the incident is largely out of character for CEO who has shown signs of presidential ambition, though he's denied this when asked. On the whole, his reactions to world events are measured and proportionate. When Trump accuses Facebook of bias, Zuckerberg posts a reasonable, considered response. But perhaps this shouldn't come as a surprise – there's a whole team of people working on Zuck's page.
For all the industry and analyst hype, it's also not clear how big consumer demand for VR will be. But that hasn't stopped companies from investing heavily in the technology. Second Life has made a comeback in VR and AltspaceVR, which creates similar avatars to Facebook's Spaces, very nearly became one of VR's first major casualties, announcing it was going to close its business earlier this year. It was only saved after Microsoft stepped in.
The technology behind Zuck's VR flyby of Puerto Rico, known as Facebook Spaces, has been publicly available since April this year. Facebook pitches it as less disaster tourism and more upbeat japes. Spaces lets you sit with a VR headset on and appear as an animated character anywhere in the world.
"By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life," Zuckerberg said in 2014. Unlike most of Facebook's, software-based, acquisitions (such as WhatsApp and Instagram), Oculus remains niche. Figures from the start of this year showed Oculus has sold fewer units than devices from Samsung, Sony and HTC.
Zuckerberg's social VR dream may yet come true, but it will never get mass approval for piggybacking on natural disasters.