Vivek Sharma, the vice president of VR platform Horizon, is stepping down from Meta. Horizon is one of the spearheads of the metaverse that the company is building above Facebook.
Vivek Sharma spent six years at Facebook’s parent company, previously responsible for Marketplace and the Gaming business unit, among other things. As vice president, he expanded Horizon: the VR business unit that has shaped the emerging metaverse.
Horizon Worlds is one of the VR projects he watched: a project that is very reminiscent of the ancient online game Second Life, but with an extra layer of virtual reality. But Vivek Sharma is equally responsible for Horizon Workrooms and Venues: the apps for collaborating and meeting in a VR environment or going to live events virtually.
It is unknown why Vivek Sharma is leaving: in the press release, Meta does not say a word about this, and the man himself did not wish to respond to questions from Reuters. Either way, the departure is a tricky time for Meta, as it plans to release a new VR headset in October.
For Meta, the metaverse is also the future project for the company, as the company name only illustrates. The Horizon team will now report directly to Vishal Shah, the vice president of the Metaverse project.