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Not content with this world, Facebook believes it can build a new reality.
Amid bad publicity, government oversight, and increased competition for its social media business, the company hires workers and manufactures products to create a “metaverse.”
On the company’s blog, Facebook vice presidents Nick Clegg and Javier Olivan described the metaverse as a new computing platform and “a new phase of interconnected virtual experiences using technologies like virtual and augmented reality.”
The expansion of the Facebook empire would position the social media giant to compete with tech makers like Google and Apple, which also host Facebook apps.
Facebook’s new products are designed to break down barriers between the physical and digital worlds. For example, Facebook said in March it had created a neural wristband to enable people to type while moving their fingers without using a keyboard. The company insisted that the product would not contain “mind reading”.
Last month, Facebook launched “Ray-Ban Stories,” glasses that let people take photos, shoot videos, listen to music, and make phone calls.
Facebook plans to hire 10,000 new employees in Europe over the next five years to build its augmented reality business. It has already started launching products and acquiring companies to achieve this.
The change is dramatic for the huge social media company, which said in July it reached an average of 2.9 billion monthly active users in July. But business and marketing analysts, shareholders and potential investors say continued changes at Facebook are necessary as they feel pressure from governments to threaten regulation and public criticism after former employees’ allegations that the company knowingly harmed children and encouraged political manipulation.
Rather than allow US lawmakers’ accusations that the tech giant is influencing elections, increasing child suicide and should be associated with ‘big tobacco’, University of Louisville marketing assistant professor Aaron Barnes said Facebook’s goal is to “rewrite history”.
“They’re not playing the 12-month-old game,” said Mr Barnes. “A smaller company can change its name in one fell swoop. … they hope to influence how they will be remembered decades from now.”
Even as previous acquisitions of leading tech platforms like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have faced antitrust scrutiny from regulators and legislators around the world, the metaverse has continued to acquire companies and hire teams of workers to grow its business.
Facebook recently acquired AI.Reverie, a company that builds virtual worlds and environments where people can train AI products. Some of the company’s early funding came from US taxpayers through the US Air Force’s innovation arm. AFWERX, and In-Q-Wirestrategic investor for the US intelligence community.
Asked about Facebook’s acquisition of his company, AI.Reverie co-founder Paul Walborsky refused to answer questions and referred The Washington Times to Facebook.
Facebook has confirmed that it has purchased AI.Reverie, but my mom wasn’t there with the details on exactly what the purchase would entail. A Facebook spokesperson said the AI.Reverie team will “accelerate our synthetic data capabilities” and “unlock enhanced user experiences across a range of use cases”, including metadata storage.
Downpour Interactive and BigBox VR are among other companies acquired by Facebook in 2021. The additions were announced by Facebook’s virtual reality hardware company Oculus. Both Downpour Interactive and BigBox VR are responsible for virtual reality games.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told The Verge in July that his company will “effectively transition from people who see us primarily as a social media company to being a metaverse company.”
More recently, rumors have circulated that Facebook is considering adding a new name that oversees its various products, from Instagram to Oculus. Business and technology analysts pointed to Google’s parent company Alphabet and acquisitions like YouTube as a potential roadmap for Facebook.
Facebook declined to comment on the “rebrand,” which The Verge said could include the name “Horizon” given its repeated appearance on various Facebook projects.
Facebook is holding a conference on Thursday that includes its augmented and virtual reality business, and the rumored name change promises to draw more attention to the company’s new direction.
Tim Derdenger, associate professor of marketing and strategy at Carnegie Mellon University, said that Facebook is trying to move away from the negative perception of social media companies due to pressure on shareholders.
It is also considering how the company can compete in the social media industry with different approaches to content moderation, such as former President Donald Trump’s TRUTH Social platform, which is scheduled to launch next year.
“If that’s the area they want to go down to, it’s a sensitive area,” Mr. Derdenger said. He stressed that one ‘misstep’ could disrupt Facebook’s work if it harms the cycle of people using its platform and connecting with others.
Neil Chilson, former acting chief technology officer of the Federal Trade Commission, said in Washington that Facebook still faces federal antitrust action, but the new business model could change the perception of the company on Capitol Hill and possibly lead to a crackdown.
Mr. Chilson, author of a new book on leadership ‘Getting Out of Control’, said Facebook’s ability to create a metaverse is far from guaranteed.
Unlike the current way people interact online through web pages and social profiles, Mr. Chilson defined the metaverse as a space where people can take their profiles in the physical world with them wherever they go, anytime.
“We’re actually talking about setting up the physics of a new world and an existing environment where consensus is hard to come by,” Mr. Chilson said.
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