TIL 18: A-Realistic Plans

Today I learned Facebook has more than 10000 of its employees working on AR (Augmented Reality) and VR(Virtual Reality). That’s 1/5th of its entire workforce.

This hiring spree comes in parallel to their launch of the Oculus Quest 2, Facebook’s potential gamechanger in VR headset, making millions of dollars in the dozens of games that it offers.

Zuckerberg and Facebook, which recently became a trillion-dollar company, believe in the immense potential of AR/VR and have heavily invested in upcoming projects in the sector.

Zuckerberg’s vision is of an ecosystem built on top of an AR/VR network. Think something out of a black mirror episode- social media network, virtual shops, business conferences, and of course, gaming. All in an Augmented Reality universe.

Facebook wishes to be the front-runner in this development. Although it may seem they have no incentive to do this, think of it in the long run. Facebook would control an entire ecosystem, which would reduce its dependency on Apple and Google. VR gaming is already a booming industry, fetching a billion dollars in sales last year.

Zuckerberg also plans to reduce the prices of entry-level VR headsets so- ‘everybody could get in the system’. And as futuristic, sci-fi fantasy his entire plan may sound, keep in mind this is also the guy who took a social media network to a trillion-dollar company. So it’d be fun to watch out how this unfolds.

(Also thanks to Morning Brew and their half-yearly wrap-up newsletter for this fact.)