Facebook Inc. FB 3.26 percent intends to create 10,000 jobs in the European Union over the next five years to establish a virtual realm that it regards as a critical component of its future and a major driver of new technology investment.
The social-media behemoth announced on Sunday that it would launch a search for highly talented people in the region to help construct a “metaverse,” an online place where users interact with one another using technology such as virtual and augmented reality jobs. The corporation stated that it would concentrate its hiring efforts in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, and Ireland.
Facebook said in a blog post that the investment “is a vote of confidence in the strength of the European tech industry and the potential of European tech talent.”
“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,” it said.
Over the summer, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined his vision for the metaverse, portraying it as a “successor” to the mobile internet and a major driver of new technology investment. Last month, the corporation announced intentions to invest $50 million in the virtual world, estimating that sections of it will take 10 to 15 years to complete.
Other big tech companies are developing hardware and software products for the metaverse, or their own virtual worlds within it, including Nvidia Corp., Roblox Corp., Epic Games Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
Facebook’s EU recruiting announcement comes as the EU is contemplating numerous legislation packages to limit the dominance of large technology and social-media corporations, laws that would be backed up by the ability to levy huge fines, according to Facebook.
It welcomes new regulations, including parts of the EU bills, but has also raised concerns about some of their elements. In the blog post on Sunday, Facebook said that “the EU also has an important role to play in shaping the new rules of the internet” by embedding European values, which Facebook says it shares.
Following a series of articles by The Wall Street Journal, based in part on extensive internal communications at the company, that offer an unprecedented look at Facebook’s struggles to manage products and systems at the heart of its business success, the company is facing increased regulatory scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic.
Source: The Wallstreet Journal
