Facebook to Rebrand as “Metaverse” Company; Will Hire 10K in EU for 3D Virtual Play Space

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Seeking to rebrand itself as a metaverse company, social media giant Facebook is reportedly planning to change its name next week to reflect its new focus. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning to address the details of the rebranding at the company’s Connect conference on October 28th, however, discussion of the matter could possibly be announced sooner, according to a report on The Verge web site.

A source with direct knowledge of the matter told The Verge that in addition to changing the name of the company, Zuckerberg has plans to reposition Facebook, Instagram, and its other entities under a new parent company; much akin to how Google shifted under Alphabet in 2015, as was reported on the PetaPixel.com web site.

PetaPixel.com reported that the metaverse as a concept was first described in a 1992 sci-fi novel and describes a virtual world where people interact through avatars. In some cases, the metaverse contains rules and societal norms that differed from the real world. Zuckerberg has said that the metaverse is “going to be a big focus” for what he believes is the next chapter of the internet as it evolves and becomes more mobile, as was reported by PetaPixel. He has also said that he believes it’s a major step for Facebook as a company as well and was quoted as saying it would be “doubling down” in that area as a result.

CNET reported that the idea of a metaverse — a computer-generated environment where people can interact with each other using AR, VR and other technologies — is something Facebook has been discussing since it acquired virtual reality headset maker Oculus in 2014. Building out the metaverse is of interest to many large tech companies, with developers comparing it to the internet in terms of openness and interoperability, as was reported by CNET.

“You can kind of think about this as an embodied internet that you’re inside of rather than just looking at,” Zuckerberg said earlier this year. “You’re basically gonna be able to do everything that you can on the internet today, as well as some things that don’t make sense on the internet today like dancing.”

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Tuesday offered some pushback on the metaverse concept by suggesting that the idea was dystopian. He said this in response to a tweet that concerned Zuckerberg’s long-range company objectives.

Meanwhile, Facebook has announced that they are in hiring mode and that they wish to employ 10,000 from within the EU to fill highly skilled roles working on Horizon Worlds, a 3D virtual play space

 

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