As a regulator warns about Metaverse's "Virtual Empire," Zuckerberg braces for a battle with Apple over Metaverse.

Facebook's parent company Meta and tech behemoth Apple are reportedly engaged in a "very deep, philosophical competition" to build the metaverse, with each company attempting to determine "what direction the internet should go in," according to the social media platform's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Meanwhile, a government watchdog is concerned about "Meta's virtual reality empire."

The entrepreneur shared his thoughts on the ongoing competition with Facebook employees during a recent internal meeting, according to The Verge, which cited a recording of Zuckerberg's comments during an internal all-hands meeting. According to the CEO, Meta will position itself as a more open, but also less expensive, alternative to Apple's hardware, as the California-based tech giant is expected to unveil its first augmented reality headset by the end of this year.

"This is a competition of philosophies and ideas," Zuckerberg explained. "They believe that by doing everything themselves and tightly integrating, they can build a better consumer experience." "And we believe that there is a lot that can be done in terms of specialization across different companies, and [that] will allow for a much larger ecosystem to exist."

The latest development comes as the US Federal Trade Commission files a lawsuit to halt Meta's acquisition of virtual reality fitness app Supernatural.

"Meta, formerly known as Facebook," the regulator said in a statement, adding that the company's "virtual reality empire" includes a top-selling device, a major app store, successful developers, and "one of the best-selling apps of all time."

It was stated,

"The agency alleges that Meta and Zuckerberg intend to expand Meta's virtual reality empire through this illegal acquisition of a dedicated fitness app that demonstrates the value of virtual reality to users."

According to a transcript of a recent earnings call on Meta's second quarter of 2022, Zuckerberg said of the metaverse that "developing these platforms will unlock hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions over time." At the same time, Reality Labs, the company's AR and VR subsidiary, reported a USD 2.8 billion operating loss for the quarter.