Facebook will become a metaverse so its ‘software will be everywhere’, Zuckerberg says

Mark Zuckerberg has said that Facebook will “effectively transition from … being a social media company to being a metaverse company”.

The metaverse does not have a specific definition, but venture capitalist Matthew Ball – who Mr Zuckerberg recommended on the topic in an interview with The Verge – sets out a number of features it could have: the metaverse is a space that is persistent, synchronous, spans both the digital and physical worlds, offers “unprecedented interoperability” and contains a fully functioning economy. It is intended as an “embodied internet”, as Mr Zuckerberg described it.

The metaverse, in Mr Zuckerberg’s vision, will be about “engag[ing] more naturally” with the behaviours we already exhibit – such as reaching for our smartphones immediately upon waking up.