Share with friends and circles of friends with wechat scanning QR code < / P > < p > on November 6. According to people familiar with the meta metauniverse project and company documents, Mark Zuckerberg's first step in building metauniverse may be to establish a physical store network around the world to help promote virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices < p > according to people familiar with the matter, meta has discussed the possibility of building a network of physical retail stores and eventually covering the world. These physical stores will be used to introduce people to the equipment manufactured by the company's reality labs department, such as VR helmets, and finally ar glasses. These devices will be the gateway to the meta universe. Metauniverse is the digital world of the future, in which people can almost seamlessly transfer from virtual reality to augmented reality < p > Zuckerberg renamed Facebook meta last week and introduced his vision of building the meta universe into the next social platform. As Zuckerberg believes, these physical stores will help show people that VR and AR can be interesting and exciting < p > according to the company's documents, the purpose of opening these physical stores is to make the world "more open and interconnected", stimulate people's "curiosity, intimacy" and other emotions, and experience a "popular" feeling when wearing helmets on a "freedom trip" < p > people familiar with the matter said that the discussion on physical stores began months before Facebook changed its name. If meta makes progress in building physical stores, it will be the first time that the technology giant, which largely exists digitally, will go deep into reality. At present, more than 3.5 billion people are using applications such as Facebook, instagram, WhatsApp and messenger < p > A Meta spokesman said that the company could not confirm the plan to open a physical store, but said that its latest VR helmet was "in great demand" and its hardware could be purchased from partner retailers < p > Zuckerberg is vigorously promoting the vision of the meta universe at a time when meta is trying to meet regulatory and social challenges. Frances Haugen, a former employee, has become a "whistleblower". She has collected thousands of pages of internal documents and recently shared them with legislators and the news media. Hogan said Facebook had not done enough to protect society from the harm it caused. Her disclosure has attracted close attention from legislators and regulators < p > doubts about the meta universe are also everywhere. Although meta's reality labs Department achieved great success with last year's low-cost VR helmet oculus Quest 2, VR is still a niche market. Hardware is often expensive and can be difficult to use. Many people complain that such devices make them feel sick < p > Tim derdenger, a professor at the Tepper School of business at Carnegie Mellon University, said: "it will take at least 5 to 10 years before we can see a fully functional meta product or service." he said that the project being developed by meta is similar to the computer game second life in the early 21st century, and called it "the second attempt, similar to second life" Service, but I hope it has a more immersive feeling " < p > nevertheless, Zuckerberg said he saw what he thought would be the next major change in the computing platform since the era of smart phones. In the future, Zuckerberg's application will no longer be subject to the rules formulated by apple and Google. The two companies have channels to publish applications such as Facebook, instagram, WhatsApp and messenger < p > it is nothing new for technology companies to open their own physical stores. Gateway, a PC maker, had its own stores in the 1990s. Apple has its own store where people can test equipment and consult. Microsoft, Amazon and others followed suit, opening their own stores < p > in recent years, meta has tried many efforts in physical retail. The company opened "pop-up" kiosks at the airport and pop-up stores in Soho District of Manhattan to showcase its oculus branded hardware products. In 2018, it also opened a pop-up store at Macy's to bring more small businesses to the platform < p > meta's document says that if the company's physical store is successfully launched, it will display products such as portal and oculus helmets. Portal is a video conferencing device that allows people to chat via Facebook. These physical stores may also include voice controlled smart glasses jointly developed by meta and ray ban, which people can use to take photos and videos < p > the document shows that the early design of meta store looks very fashionable, the architectural appearance adopts flat and simple aesthetic design, and the location of Facebook brand is also very clever. It is reported that the company is considering naming its physical store as Facebook hub, Facebook commons, Facebook innovation, Facebook reality store or from Facebook, but in the end, Facebook store is the most popular < p > it is not clear how meta name change will affect the naming of physical stores. Andrew Bosworth, chief technology officer of meta, said that oculus would stop production and use the name meta instead. He said that oculus quest will become meta quest, and Facebook portal will be renamed meta portal < p > the flagship store of Facebook store was originally planned to be located in Burlingame, California, where meta set up an office for its reality labs employees. It is unclear whether these plans will continue. (small) < / P > < p >