Facebook is trying to create a team that will bring a range of products to work in the "metaverse", a digital world where people can "move" between different devices and communicate in a virtual environment, the director announced executive Mark Zuckerberg.
Based on his announcement, it will be a "meta-universe" where real and virtual will merge into a science-fiction vision that is already being used in video games.
"You can think of 'metaverse' as an embedded internet, where instead of just looking at content - you're in it," Zuckerberg told The Verge.
"Metaverse" can be described as a cyberspace parallel to physical reality, where a community of people can interact in the form of avatars. The concept was created by author Neal Stephenson in the 1992 science-fiction novel "Snow Crash" - a fusion of physical and virtual reality into a common online space.
"If we do this well, I think over the next five years or so ... we will effectively move from people who see us primarily as a social networking company to a 'metaverse' company." - Zuckerberg told Verge.
Facebook, the world’s largest social network, has invested heavily in virtual reality and augmented reality (AR), developing devices such as Oculus VR headphones or AR glasses.
