Facebook is opening Horizon World, its virtual reality avatar world, to everyone 18 and older in the US and Canada.
Courtesy of Meta
Vivek Sharma, vice president of social media virtual reality software Meta at Horizon, is leaving the company, a spokesperson said Friday.
Sharma was on Facebook with her parent Target for the past six years she has held senior positions in the market and gaming and most recently her nascent metaversion business unit.
As vice president of Horizon, Sharma, who is based in the Seattle area, has overseen various VR projects, such as the social media service Horizon Worlds, which is similar to the online game Second Life that has been converted to virtual reality. Other Horizon products include VR-based workplace collaboration app Horizon Workrooms and live event app Horizon Venues, which was moved to the main Worlds app this summer.
“Under his leadership, the Horizon product group has built a strong team with an ambitious vision and is just getting started,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “Meta continues to be a resource for developing great leaders and we are excited to see what Vivek will accomplish in his next chapter.”
The spokesperson added that the Horizon team will now report directly to Vishal Shah, Meta’s vice president of Metaverse.
Meta is betting that the metaverse, a collection of digital worlds that people can access through VR and related augmented reality technologies, represents the next frontier in computing.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg he said on a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, he says his company will introduce a new VR headset in October, which is the month when Meta usually holds its Connect VR conference.
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