Facebook plans to create 10,000 new jobs in the European Union over the next five years as part of its budding "metaverse."
"Europe is highly important to Facebook," according to a company blog post, which cites the "thousands of employees" and "millions of businesses" using its apps and tools. "The metaverse has the potential to help unlock access to new creative, social, and economic opportunities," the announcement said. "And Europeans will be shaping it right from the start."
There is no word on what sorts of jobs will be available, but the social network did mention "the need for highly specialized engineers." Facebook will work with governments across the EU on an upcoming recruitment drive.
The metaverse is not an original idea: Coined by sci-fi author Neal Stephenson in the early 1990s, the term roughly translates to "beyond the universe." It typically describes a future iteration of the internet, consisting of shared 3D virtual spaces. Think Ready Player One or Wreck it Ralph 2.
At Facebook, it refers to a "new phase of interconnected virtual experiences" using technology like virtual and augmented reality. "At its heart is the idea that by creating a greater sense of 'virtual presence,' interacting online can become much closer to the experience of interacting in person," the blog said.
Oculus users can already teleport themselves into other worlds full of digital people and experiences. But to reach its full potential, the metaverse needs to "build the connective tissue between these spaces," Andrew Bosworth, VP of AR/VR at Facebook, explained in July. The idea is to defy the real-world limitations of physics and allow people to move between virtual spaces the same way we move between tangible spaces.