Facebook Wants To Build Its Metaverse

Facebook believes that its metaverse will shape how we use the internet in the future. It is now spending $50 million to persuade people to believe in the concept. 

Facebook initially said it was building its metaverse in August, essentially a concept in which people will merge their online and physical worlds. If someone is buying groceries, playing a video game, or chatting with friends, the metaverse aims to make these activities more personable than they are now. 

On August 19, Facebook announced Horizon Workrooms, the first example of its metaverse. Horizon Workrooms is a VR application that allows up to 16 people to join a virtual office for remote work instead of hosting a work meeting through Zoom or Google Meet. They can see other people’s avatars in the Horizon Workroom, use a real-world Mac or PC while in VR, and have full gesture-tracking for arm and head movement. It’s just one example of how the metaverse concept can be implemented, and there will undoubtedly be more metaverse applications from Facebook in the coming years. 

In preparation for the development of its metaverse, Facebook so far has tried to support the innovation with an emphasis on privacy and responsibility. The company revealed the XR Programs and Research Fund in a news report on September 27, 2021. 

As per Facebook, 

“Through this fund, we’ll collaborate with industry partners, civil rights groups, governments, nonprofits and academic institutions to determine how to build these technologies responsibly.” 

In addition, the company emphasised on equity, inclusion, and privacy as key points for the improvement of this idea, all with the goal of convincing people that it is investing time and money to build the metaverse the ‘right’ way. 

Recently, Facebook has attempted to portray itself as a responsible platform owner. It announced on Monday that it was pausing work on a pre-teen-focused Instagram after strongly denying a report that claimed the company knew Instagram was bad for teenage girls. The company has also stated that it is becoming more transparent about the types of posts that its algorithms attempt to hide, and it has denied another report that the company attempted to promote itself via the News Feed. Despite its efforts, it has remained embroiled in controversy: it was forced to apologise to researchers after providing them with inaccurate data, and its oversight board has requested more information about hoaxing. 

Though the company is promoting this fund as metaverse-focused, given its name, it appears to have a broader focus. It has started conducting extensive research in the Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality space, and while $50 million is a large sum, it represents a tiny fraction of what Facebook earns in a single quarter. The sum also does not appear to correspond to the importance Facebook places on Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality and the metaverse’s future impact.