Ideas

Boz to the Future Episode 2: The Future of Communities with Fidji Simo

July 30, 2021

Last month, Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) launched Boz to the Future, a new monthly podcast featuring Head of FRL Andrew “Boz” Bosworth. In the first episode, Bosworth teamed up with FRL VP of Operations Rebecca Van Dyck to discuss the challenges faced by FRL while building AR glasses — both from a technological and social acceptability standpoint. In today’s episode, he speaks with Instacart CEO and former head of the Facebook app Fidji Simo on the burgeoning creator economy and the important role communities play in it.

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Creators are community builders, and Simo posits that the next generation of community leaders will be creators in their own right. Simo and Bosworth also consider how creator content will evolve beyond entertainment, branching out into areas as diverse as fitness, food, and education to mental health and spirituality, spurred on as new business models like subscriptions and tipping as well as new formats emerge. Along with those shifts, Bosworth and Simo expect to see a more niche — and increasingly diverse — creator class form, where those who go deep on a given topic will appeal to a smaller, yet highly engaged audience. They also touch on the bonds that bridge various communities comprised of people from different backgrounds, despite differences in political beliefs, religion, and more.

We recorded this episode before Simo’s move to Instacart, and we wish her all the best in her exciting new endeavors.

You can tune in to Boz to the Future on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Facebook — or right here on Tech@Facebook. We’ll see you next month for a new episode.

You can also follow Bosworth on Instagram and Twitter @boztank. Follow Simo on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @fidjissimo.