Mr. Zuckerberg has since turned to Mr. Bosworth for major initiatives. In 2012, Bosworth was put in charge of developing Facebook’s mobi...
Mr. Zuckerberg has since turned to Mr. Bosworth for major initiatives. In 2012, Bosworth was put in charge of developing Facebook’s mobile advertising products. After management issues within Oculus’ virtual reality division, Mr. Zuckerberg dispatched Mr. Bosworth in August 2017 to regain the initiative. The virtual reality business was later renamed Reality Labs.
In October, the company said would create 10,000 jobs related to the metaverse in the European Union over the next five years. That same month, Mr. Zuckerberg announced he was changing Facebook’s name to Meta and pledged billions of dollars to the effort.
Reality Labs is now at the forefront of the company’s move to the metaverse, employees said. Product, engineering and research workers have been encouraged to apply for new roles there, they said, while others have been elevated from their jobs in social media divisions to lead the same functions with a metaverse focus.
Of the more than 3,000 open jobs listed on Meta’s website, more than 24% are for roles in augmented or virtual reality. The jobs are in cities like Seattle, Shanghai and Zurich. A work SEO for a “gameplay engineering lead” for Horizon, the company’s free-to-play virtual reality game, said the nominee’s responsibilities would include imagining new ways to experience concerts and conventions.
Internal recruitment for the Metaverse ramped up late last year, three Meta engineers said, with their managers citing job openings on Metaverse-related teams in December and January. Others who did not embark with the new mission left. A former employee says he quit after he felt his work on Instagram would no longer be of value to the company; another said he didn’t think Meta was best suited to create the Metaverse and was looking for a job with a competitor.
What is the Metaverse and why is it important?
The origins. The word “metaverse” describes a fully realized digital world that exists beyond the one in which we live. It was invented by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash”, and the concept was further explored by Ernest Cline in his novel “Ready Player One”.
Meta has also attracted dozens of employees from companies including Microsoft and Apple, two people with knowledge of the moves said. In particular, Meta hired divisions of these companies that worked on augmented reality products, like Microsoft’s Hololens and Apple’s secret augmented reality glasses project.
Representatives from Microsoft and Apple declined to comment. Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal previously reported on some staff movements.
COMMENTS