Facebook is opening up more than 10,000 new job positions in Europe over the next five years as part of its plans to create its own virtual world, known as the Facebook "metaverse."
The social media company announced Sunday that it would be hiring thousands of highly skilled software engineers across the European Union. The company is focusing its recruitment drive in countries such as Germany, Spain, Poland, France, Italy, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
Facebook's head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said they are choosing to hire people from one of their most important markets. Javier Olivan, vice president of Facebook's central products, said Europe is a big part of the company's success and vice versa.
"As we begin the journey of bringing the metaverse to life, the need for highly specialized engineers is one of Facebook's most pressing priorities," Olivan said.
The company said it is looking forward to working with the government of the EU to find the right talent to help it achieve its goals.
"The EU has a number of advantages that make it a great place for tech companies to invest - a large consumer market, first-class universities, and, crucially, top-quality talent," Olivan said.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously talked about the company's plans to create its own virtual world in July. A metaverse is an online digital world where users can interact within a 3D environment. Within the metaverse, people can socialize, shop, and do business among other possible activities.
The company said one of its first steps to create its own metaverse is the development of a new work collaboration app, which will allow users to hold meetings in virtual reality. Apart from Facebook, tech companies such as Microsoft, Epic Games, and Roblox are investing heavily in the creation of their own metaverses.
Experts believe metaverses will essentially become the future of the internet. Instead of logging into a computer to visit websites, future generations could likely put on their virtual reality glasses and visit virtual spaces and environments that are persistent and shared with multiple other users.
Zuckerberg envisions the technology to blur the lines between the physical world and the digital one. As an example, future metaverses would allow people to talk "face-to-face" even if they are thousands of miles apart.
