A series of failures made Mark Zuckerberg feel that he was no longer respected as before and Elon Musk suddenly became a suitable opponent for the new trick of the Facebook family.

The Washington Post (WP) reported that Meta’s failure in the virtual universe and artificial intelligence (AI) is causing Mark Zuckerberg to try to use tricks to make his mark in the technology industry.

The founder once appeared on Joe Rogan’s answer show, who is an Elon Musk fan. Then there are the images of participating in the Jujitsu competition and most recently the story of the Tesla boss’s fighting challenge.

According to WP, the pair have agreed to compete at the Vegas Octagon but it’s unclear when or if the event will come true.

However, many experts said that whether this event takes place or not, it shows that Mark Zuckerberg no longer retains the image of a pioneering technologist as before after the failure of the virtual universe segment and the slowdown in the AI industry.

Mark Zuckerberg watched cage fighting, a competition that the founder was challenged by Elon Musk

WP insiders say Mark Zuckerberg’s grandiose image built over the years thanks to Facebook’s success has been tarnished after the disappointing results of the virtual universe. Therefore, Elon Musk suddenly became a suitable opponent for the Facebook founder in the process of continuing to make his mark on the technology village.

“In the context of Meta struggling with a series of layoffs as well as the dream of the virtual universe not coming true, I think Mark Zuckerberg is feeling that he is no longer respected by everyone as before. The incident challenged Elon Musk as a way for Mark to show the world that he is still famous and worthy of tech stars like Elon,” said Bhaskar Chakravorti of Tufts University.

Brand image

According to WP, Facebook’s brand image has long been associated with founder Mark Zuckerberg. The social network even regularly does internal consultations about the founder’s “likability.”

The WP source also said that Mark Zuckerberg himself is very interested in his image as a pioneering technologist, while also paying attention to what the public thinks of him.

In fact, in recent years, Meta’s communications team has positioned Mark Zuckerberg as a leader who tells stories and captures attention, thereby positively impacting the company’s brand. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that many of Mark’s personal activities were put up by Facebook as a promotional focus.

But the failure to predict the success of the virtual universe or the slowdown in AI, especially the mass layoffs of employees, has tarnished it all.

Although Mark has tried to justify the tens of thousands of job cuts by arguing that people should judge on achieving goals rather than the number of people fired, the CEO is shifting his focus to AI instead of the virtual universe.

However, this does not save the fact that Facebook has squandered money on virtual space technology, a “bombshell” product, while the AI segment, which was invested early but neglected by the company, became a bright spot. As a result, Mark Zuckerberg is judged to have a vision that is not really as great as people mistakenly think.

So Mark Zuckerberg suddenly turned to Instagram to continuously post other attention-grabbing stories. 3 weeks ago, the Facebook founder posted a picture of doing the Murph sports challenge while exercising to carry weights.

Then the story of participating in a Jujitsu tournament to unconsciousness also began to spread.

“These founders are starting to steer the narrative into self-image to hide the difficulties their companies are having,” public relations expert Brooke Hammerling told WP.

After participating in Jujitsu, Mark Zuckerberg participated in a broadcast and said it was Elon Musk’s aggressive staff cuts at Twitter that gave confidence to directors, including Mark himself, in the mass layoffs that followed.

“It’s good for the tech industry that Elon Musk made that change,” Zuckerberg concluded, despite previously trying to justify his mass layoffs.