Facebook Sets up $50M Investment Fund for the Development of Metaverse

Online social media and social networking service platform Facebook today announced a two-year grant of $50 million to strengthen the interpersonal connection between reality and virtual reality and consumer hardware and to promote the development of Metaverse products.

Metaverse is a combination of the prefix “meta”, meaning beyond, and “universe”, which refers to shared virtual worlds where land, buildings, avatars, and even names can be bought and sold, often using cryptocurrency.

Metaverse is also called “Metaverse”. In this virtual space, users can create, explore, play, work, shop, and do other daily activities with other users who exist in another type of physical space.

Facebook represents the existence of Meta Universe that “It’s not necessarily about spending more time online — it’s about making the time you do spend online more meaningful.”

In the latest official announcement, the company said:

"The metaverse won’t be built overnight by a single company. We’ll collaborate with policymakers, experts and industry partners to bring this to life."

Facebook stated that in addition to cooperating with experts from the government, industry, and academia to think about interoperability, collaborative work, and other issues and opportunities in the metaverse, it will also cooperate in predicting and controlling risks in the following areas, namely: Economic opportunity; Privacy; Safety and integrity; Equity and inclusion.

Funds will be paid through Facebook’s two-year US$50 million XR program and research funding.

To ensure a more responsible and inclusive way to deploy its Metaverse, Facebook teams also cooperate with some non-profit organizations, including Women In Immersive Tech,  supporting Africa No Filter, Electric South, and Imisi3D.

Initial partners include cooperation with well-known universities, such as Seoul National University and the University of Hong Kong-security design research; National University of Singapore-artificial intelligence field privacy law research; Howard University-IT diversity.