Facebook buys virtual reality pioneer Oculus for $2 billion

Hot on the heels of the $19 billion acquisition of instant messaging platform WhatsApp, Facebook today announced its latest purchase.

The latest buy, however, has on the face of it nothing to do with Facebook's core social networking business.

Mark Zuckerberg's firm stumped up $2 billion to snap up Oculus, the company famous for making a wrap-around virtual reality headset, the Rift.

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That suggests that Zuckerberg has major plans to expand beyond what we think of today as social networking.

So, why virtual reality? Perhaps Zuckerberg imagines that the next generation of online social interaction will involve immersive virtual environments in cyberspace?