Some believe that NFTs and other "virtual" items will be able to be displayed in the metaverse. And according to Reuters, Facebook plans to hire 10K people in the EU to get to work on the Facebook metaverse, in the hopes that Roblox, Microsoft or other "metaverse" companies don't beat Facebook to the punch. Zuck has been talking about the metaverse since July (some have speculated that it has been an attempt to help fix the company's reputation (now Facebook is facing another major scandal via the "Facebook leaks").
"No one company will own and operate the metaverse," Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president of global affairs, wrote in a blog post. "Bringing this to life will take collaboration and cooperation across companies, developers, creators and policymakers."
Zuckerberg and others have insisted that the COVID-inspired acceleration of the shift to Zoom and other online services, allowing offices to shift to a pattern of work that is completely remote. This also could have an impact on how we interact in our free time.
Zuckerberg believes the metaverse would be accessible across VR, mobile, PCs and even gaming consoles, among other venues, according to Reuters.
While Facebook did not say what roles it would hire for and where exactly they would be based, Facebook has been facing antitrust investigations in the EU by the Continent's top anittrust regulators. The recent leaks have raised criticisms of Facebook's handling of sex trafficking and other abuses on its platforms.
FB has already committed $50MM for building the metaverse, and testing a new remote work app where users of Oculus Quest 2 headsets could hold meetings via avatar versions of themselves.
The big question is"will the metaverse be another 'Libra' (Zuckerberg's attempt to try and control the money supply that went horribly awry?) or something new and actually useful from Facebook?
