Insider Finance - Business - For Zuck, when is enough, enough?

Nicholas Carlson October 19, 2022

Hello, Insiders. It’s starting to look like American voters choosing between a Republican-controlled Congress and a Democratic one are facing another choice: Do they want the US to continue sending as much aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia? At one point, support for Ukraine was bipartisan. But recent data and a comment from GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (who told Punchbowl that, if there’s a recession, he thinks people are not going to “write a blank check to Ukraine") suggest that era is ending. What do you think? Let me know at newsletter@insider.com. And with that, let’s get started.

The latest

• Netflix threw shade at “House of the Dragon” and “Rings of Power” with a chart showing “Dahmer” surpassing them on Google Trends, as it crushed earnings expectations. Take a look here.

• NASA telescopes have detected the brightest explosion ever recorded, as a star collapsed into a black hole. See the image here.

• While conducting the special master review of seized docs, a judge questioned Trump’s claim of privilege, asking: “Where’s the beef?”

The big story

Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg's foray into the metaverse has hit severe roadblocks — and Meta’s already burned $15 billion on his passion project. So it’s time for Zuckerberg to pause, reflect, and ask himself one important question: When is enough, enough?

Meta’s metaverse experiment isn’t off to a promising start, and there have been plenty of warning signs the past few weeks. Per the Wall Street Journal, most users abandon the platform after the first month. And according to the Verge, it's so chaotic that even the team working on the flagship metaverse app is hardly using it.

Plus, economic uncertainty has already forced Zuckerberg to freeze hiring and take other actions that have rattled employees. Even buzzy announcements like Zuckerberg's new virtual legs turned out to be marketing fluff, not an actual feature.

So how many more warning signs does he need to see?

Read our full analysis here.

Top reads

Vicky Leta/Insider

• Artists say AI image generators are copying their style to make thousands of new pieces. With OpenAI’s image generator, DALL-E, now publicly available, artists who’ve spent years on their portfolios say people can make copycat images in seconds. Here’s what’s going on.

• Death threats, insomnia, and near-minimum wage: A Meta customer service contractor revealed what it's like to be on the frontline of Facebook customer complaints, fielding 20 cases a day from organizations, businesses, celebrities, and creators. Read what she told us.

• An argument for skipping birthday gifts: Growing up, this writer’s uncle didn’t give her birthday gifts, but would say he’d put money into a savings account. Well, after she graduated college, he handed her $6,000 — and taught her a “lifelong lesson” in financial planning.

• “Making $10,000+ a month is not that hard." On TikTok, creators are getting rich and spreading dubious advice about lucrative side-hustles, while failing to give viewers a full picture of the risks. Here’s what to know about these get-rick-quick schemes.

• Emojis are an online-dating minefield. Five women who use dating apps shared the do’s and don'ts of communicating with emojis. Hint: Don’t use the red heart. A look at the “red flag” emojis to avoid — and the emojis that work for sexting.

Today’s sound bite

“Passengers discovered the snake as the plane was pulling into Newark Airport, and screams erupted throughout the cabin.”  

No, this is not a retelling of the film Snakes on a Plane. Find out what happened by listening to The Refresh from Insider.

Watch this

Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, was under attack this week by Russian drones — and multiple residential buildings were damaged and destroyed. Watch a drone strike during rush hour here.

Today's team

Nicholas Carlson (@nichcarlson), Lisa Ryan (@lisarya), and Jordan Parker Erb (@jordanparkererb).

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