Facebook today announced plans to hire 10,000 people across the European Union over the next five years to work on its take on the metaverse.
The social networking giant announced as much in a new blog post authored by Nick Clegg, VP Global Affairs, and Javier Olivan, VP Central Products. New details about exactly what Facebook’s interpretation of the metaverse will be were not revealed, but the company said it would work with governments to “find the right people and the right markets” for the recruitment drive.
Facebook’s Metaverse Team Expanding
The metaverse is a broad term used to describe a virtual online environment where people could meet up as digital reflections of themselves and interact with others.
Currently, Facebook has several such experiences on its Oculus Quest platform. In August it launched Horizon Workrooms, allowing VR and non-VR users to meet in virtual offices to collaborate. Work also continues of the recently rebranded Horizon Worlds, which lets users make their own VR experiences with others.
In July, Facebook announced it was setting up a “Metaverse product group”. We speculated on what exactly that means right here. Around the same time, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook would be a “metaverse company” in the next five years.
“No one company will own and operate the metaverse,” today’s blog post reads. “Like the internet, its key feature will be its openness and interoperability. Bringing this to life will take collaboration and cooperation across companies, developers, creators and policymakers.”
Next week sees Facebook host its annual Connect developer conference for VR and AR technologies. We’ll be bringing you all the latest on the company’s announcements at the show.
