A brief history of building things people actually want
They spent $83 billion. We spent considerably less. Turns out people still like going places.
Horizon Worlds DAU
~900
at peak, 2022
Wombie DAU
~9,000
and growing
The official scorecard
and counting
surprisingly effective
being wound down
growing
available 24/7
may cancel plans
The numbers
$83,000,000,000
That's eighty-three billion dollars. Enough to fund Wombie for approximately 2 million years. They built a virtual world. Nobody came. The avatars didn't have legs.
$83B
total spent
900
daily users at peak
$92M
per daily user
0
legs per avatar
Sources: Meta earnings reports, Bloomberg reporting, and the widely-circulated photo of legless Horizon avatars that went viral in 2021.
Product philosophy
Wombie user
Horizon avatar
In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled his vision for the future of human connection.
The avatars didn't have legs. This wasn't a bug — it was a deliberate engineering decision.
The team reportedly found adding legs too technically difficult.
Instead of solving the hard problem, they shipped without them and hoped nobody would notice.
The internet noticed.
"We're not saying we won. We're just saying we have legs."
— Wombie, a small app that shows up
2021 → 2024
The $83B Bet
Meta renames to Meta. Bets the company on the metaverse.
"This is the next chapter."
The Wombie Bet
Wombie ships event discovery in its first city.
Week 1.
The $83B Bet
Horizon Worlds peaks at ~900 DAU. Internal memo leaks: the app is "too slow and buggy."
$10B lost in Reality Labs.
The Wombie Bet
Wombie adds group planning. First 1,000 events created.
Growing steadily.
The $83B Bet
Meta's VR headsets priced at $3,499. Critic consensus: "cool tech, no reason to use it."
Employees reportedly rarely use Horizon.
The Wombie Bet
Wombie hits 5 cities. Daily active users cross 1,000.
Word of mouth.
The $83B Bet
Horizon Worlds quietly being wound down. $83B spent.
No legs were added.
The Wombie Bet
Wombie: 9,000+ DAU. Still have legs.
Still here.
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Two visions
Their bet
AI companions in a legless universe.
Convince people that the future of socializing is putting on a headset and floating through a virtual office with no legs. Add AI friends when real ones don't show up. Spend $83 billion making sure nobody can say you didn't try.
Our bet
Real friends. Real places. Real plans.
Build something that helps people who already like each other find reasons to leave their apartments. No headset required. Legs strongly encouraged. Budget: considerably less than $83 billion.
Legs
Environment
Budget
Daily users
Current status
Social circle
The bottom line
No headset. No AI companions. No legless avatars. Just a really good reason to leave the house.
Wombie is real. The metaverse was not. One of these is still running.