Facebook announced it is planning to hire 10,000 workers in the European Union in the next five years with for building its ‘metaverse‘, a computing platform that is designed to connect people virtually. 

In Sunday’s blog post, the company shared that those skilled workers will aid in building ‘the metaverse’, a futuristic notion for connecting online that uses augmented and virtual reality.

Facebook executives have been touting the metaverse as the next big thing after the mobile internet, though their track record is spotty on predicting future trends. Expectations that CEO Mark Zuckerberg made four years ago of taking virtual vacations with faraway loved ones via a headset or using a smartphone camera to improve an apartment virtually have not materialized so far.

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“As we begin the journey of bringing the metaverse to life, the need for highly specialized engineers is one of Facebook’s most pressing priorities,” according to the blog post from Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs, and Javier Olivan, vice president of central products. 

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The metaverse can be accessed in real time by millions of people across the world in different avatars. It can be used to carry out virtual meetings or buy virtual land and clothing or other digital assets, and pay for it all with cryptocurrencies. 

Facebook is not dealing with “metaverse” on its own. It has revealed that Metaverse will not have a single owner. Other holders include Fortnite maker Epic Games. However, there have been rising concerns about Facebook and other tech giants enjoying the monopoly of metaverse and putting it to use to acquire personal data for profit. 

Last month, Facebook announced that it would invest $50 million on global research and partnerships with civil rights groups, nonprofits, governments and universities for responsible development of the metaverse. However, it was also said that full realisation of those products could perhaps take 10 to 15 years.