Facebook Announces a $50M Fund to Research the Development of a Metaverse

The social media giant announced earlier this week its plans to create its own metaverse with the help of multiple parties. To do so, Facebook will allocate $50 million for research and program partners.

Facebook’s Swing at Metaverse

The company’s announcement reads that Facebook will not rely on a single company to build the project “overnight.” Instead, it will focus on cooperating with different parties, including policymakers, experts, and industry partners, to “bring this to life.”

The $50 million funding will go primarily for global research and connecting with program partners to “ensure these products are developed responsibly.”

Facebook’s metaverse will work as a set of virtual spaces where users can cooperate with people who “aren’t in the same physical space.”

“You will be able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create, and more. It’s not necessarily about spending more time online – it’s about making the time you do spend online more meaningful.”

Facebook’s ambitions go even further as it promised that this metaverse will work even if the social media giant “is there or not.” Such a large project will need a lot of time to be built, and Facebook recognized that it could be more than a decade. This is because success could depend on various factors, including “robust interoperability across services,” which will enable different companies to work together.

Ultimately, the XR Programs and Research Fund will work as a two-year $50 million investment vehicle.

Privacy Concerns

Facebook, which is also attempting to build its own cryptocurrency project, has faced much criticism throughout the years in regards to privacy or the lack of it. As such, one of the main focuses from the upcoming metaverse would be on how it could “minimize the amount of data that’s used.”

To do so, the companies working on the project will need to build technology enabling privacy-protective data usage and give people transparency and control over their own information.

The metaverse will also have to encourage competition, maintain a “thriving digital economy,” enhance security and make it easy to access for all users.