Key Google Exec Defects To Facebook, Report Reveals

A Top Company Director Announced His Departure This Week Amid an Exodus of Key XR Staff

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Mixed RealityInsights

Published: July 15, 2021

Demond Cureton

US tech giant Google has lost another key executive in its virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) department amid Facebook’s push to build its virtual empire, Input Magazine reported in July.

Joshua To, Former Google Design Director of Hardware and Services, Google Workspace, and VR/AR, posted on his LinkedIn profile he had begun work at Facebook Reality Labs this month.

The former director also previously worked on Google’s Lens and Daydream projects, according to sources cited by the Input report.

The news comes after the Mountain View, California-based firm axed further efforts ahead of launching its own VR solution to rival Facebook’s Oculus Quest headsets.

Google also ended its Measure app and Tango AR platform in June, as well as Google Glass in 2015, due to poor performance concerns.

More VR Execs Bid Farewell to Google

Other notable people who have left the firm include Paul Debevec, Director of Research, Creative Algorithms and Technology at Netflix, who left the firm in June this year after working as a Senior Staff Engineer for GoogleVR and Senior Staff Scientist for Google Research.

According to reports, Neflix inked a groundbreaking deal this month with a top producer to potentially create VR content for its movies streaming platform.

Netflix massive deal with Shonda Rhimes, Producer at Shondaland Media, who worked on blockbuster TV serieses such as Bridgerton, How to Get Away with Murder, Scandal, and Grey’s Anatomy, could lead to VR content from the company.

The deal is now reportedly worth $100 million USD, US media reported on Thursday.

Jon Wiley, Former Project Designer and Head of Design for Search, also announced in June he would leave Google following a 15-year career at the tech firm.

Wiley co-led Google’s Project Kennedy in 2011, which redesigned the company’s core solutions after chief executive Larry Page rejoined, and later co-founded and led the firm’s Materials Design unit.

But Wiley tweeted on 4 June:

“After 15 years, today is my last day at Google. I helped make some useful things and I helped Google be better at design. I’ve worked with amazing people and I’m grateful I got the opportunity to make a dent. Gonna take a break for a bit and have a think about what’s next”

The three experts left Google amid Facebook’s massive recruitment drive, which has seen over 10,000 people, or 20 percent of the firm’s workforce, join its Reality Labs division, up from 5 percent in 2017.

Facebook has led a major push into VR technologies following the success of its Oculus headset lineup, which accounts for 52.4 percent of all headset shipments year-on-year for the first quarter this year, reports revealed this month.

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