In any interview of a CEO, you always learn something that’s investable. I wanted to give you my four immediate impressions of what I saw tonight from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. 1. We got a new, positive read on Reels. Zuckerberg told us the short-form video product is ahead of plan and that a surprising percentage of Facebook is now on video. Advertisers love video. They love TikTok. To me, it seems that Zuckerberg is on the verge of making Tiktok as irrelevant as Snap (SNAP). I know that’s a tall order: TikTok is supposed to make $12 billion in revenues this year. But the growth that Zuckerberg talked about with Reels tells me that there’s a real chance for a breakout — and one that’s going to happen sooner than later. That’s not in the numbers. 2. The metaverse is further along than you think. We know that the metaverse is a long-haul project for the company. But I got the sense that it is well ahead of where anyone thought it would be by now. Advertisers want in and sign up every day. He told us —again, news — that the Quest 2 VR headset was selling better than expected. Zuckerberg’s confidence in the metaverse producing revenue sooner allowed the company to skip their take from developers’ successes until 2024. That’s a very smart way to get the best to create the most compelling content. 3. Metaverse is great for work — watch out Zoom. Third, I know the entertainment, travel and leisure uses, as well as retail and education, are top of mind. But one thing worth thinking about: In the metaverse, you can have side conversations with someone that aren’t heard by the group. That, plus the 3-D nature, will make it so it is used more often than you would think for work, particularly work from home. I think Zoom is a terrific product. But we are zoomed out. Meeting in the metaverse will take over the space in a very quick time, as soon as we all have avatars. The avatars themselves are hilarious. You can dress as you want. Mark dressed me in a suit and the artists had me looked jacked. Take it where you can get it. I think that the most important uses will be for those who are alone and don’t want to be alone. Mark and I talked at length about the simple joy of watching what a friend of yours or your relative is watching. That’s not going to make Meta a lot of money. You have to think of the money the way you think about paying for Fortnite items with V-Bucks. If writers can create cool things — and we know they can — money should fall from the sky for this one. 4. More buybacks … Mark’s last answer was very telling. There is plenty of room to invest, to research and to buy back stock, so they will be in the market buying. They spent $20 billion last quarter on buybacks. I think it will be even more this quarter because of how ahead of plan they seem to be. I think analysts will be glad to learn about Reels and video and thrilled that it could become a much more viable alternative to TikTok in such a short time. I remain committed to believing that the metaverse is a trillion-dollar opportunity. I wish I could buy some META right now. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long META. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
In any interview of a CEO, you always learn something that’s investable. I wanted to give you my four immediate impressions of what I saw tonight from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
