Metaverse: Facebook’s immersive digital project to start soon

Facebook, on Monday, said that they are combining specialists from across its hardware, gaming and virtual reality units as they look to build an immersive digital world known as the “metaverse.”

The term ‘metaverse’ was coined by sci-fi writer Neal Stephenson. It refers to a shared online world in which multiple users can hang out, spend time, consume media among others.

As per an AFP report, the project is seen as central to Facebook’s future by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

“Today we’re standing up a Metaverse product group… to bring together the teams focused on responsibly building this ambitious work,” Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth said in a post.

“The defining quality of the Metaverse will be presence — the feeling of really being there with people.”

Bosworth said that hardware from Facebook such as Portal smart-screens and Oculus virtual reality head-gear are already tools for making people feel close together.

“To achieve our full vision of the Metaverse, we also need to build the connective tissue between these spaces,” he said.

Vishal Shah from the Instagram team will head a new Metaverse Product Group.

US video game company Epic Games had announced early this year that it raised $1 billion in new funding and would use some of that money toward the creation of the metaverse. Epic Games has also created Fortnite.

Hit video games such as Fortnite have seen use soar during the pandemic, and their creators see potential to expand to virtual parties, get-togethers or work events.

An American online social media service, Facebook was founded in 2004 by Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.

Initially, membership was limited to Harvard students. But it gradually expanded to other North American universities. As of 2020, Facebook said that it had 2.8 billion monthly active users. It also ranked 7th in global internet usage. Apart from this, it was also the most downloaded mobile application of the 2010s, media reports said.