(Adds details, background on metaverse)
Oct 18 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to create
10,000 jobs in the European Union over the next five years, the
social media giant said on Monday, to help build the so-called
metaverse - an online world where people can use different
devices to move and communicate in a virtual environment.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has been talking up
metaverse since July and the buzzy word, first coined in a
dystopian novel three decades earlier, has been referenced by
other tech firms such as Microsoft.
"No one company will own and operate the metaverse," Nick
Clegg, Facebook's vice president of global affairs, wrote in a
blog post https://about.fb.com/news/2021/10/creating-jobs-europe-metaverse.
"Bringing this to life will take collaboration and cooperation
across companies, developers, creators and policymakers."
Using technologies such as virtual and augmented reality
Facebook plans to create a greater sense of "virtual presence",
which will mimic the experience of interacting in person.
The coronavirus pandemic has shifted much of the office
meetings online, leading to the rise of conferencing apps such
as Zoom, and big tech companies are looking to capitalize on
this shift.
Facebook, which has invested heavily in virtual reality (VR)
and augmented reality (AR), including buying companies like
Oculus, intends to connect its nearly three billion users
through several devices and apps.
Zuckerberg believes the metaverse would be accessible across
VR, AR, PC, mobile devices and game consoles.
It has already committed $50 million for building the
metaverse, and testing a new remote work app where users of
Oculus Quest 2 headsets could hold meetings as avatar versions
of themselves.
While Facebook did not say what roles it would hire for and
where they would be based, the company has been facing antitrust
probes https://www.reuters.com/technology/irish-regulator-proposes-36-mln-euro-facebook-privacy-fine-document-2021-10-13
in the region, and is often criticised over online safety and
hate speech on its platform.
"We look forward to working with governments across the EU
to find the right people and the right markets to take this
forward, as part of an upcoming recruitment drive across the
region," Clegg wrote.
(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru and Supantha Mukherjee
in Stockholm; Additional reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas;
Editing by Maju Samuel)