"You come here and other people surround you, but they don't understand you, and you don't understand them, yet people still talk a lot of meaningless nonsense. To survive, you have to go from morning till night. Keep doing this stupid, pointless work. The only way to get out of here is to quit your job, break free, risk everything and go out into that evil world where you'll be swallowed and never audio."
—Neil Stephenson, "Avalanche"
A utopian future or a fast-moving present?
The Metaverse is where the physical and digital worlds meet. In this space, digital representations of people—avatars—interact at work and play, such as meeting at offices, immersive concerts online, and trying on clothes without leaving home.
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▼From left to right—The Sandbox/Decentraland—a digital world built on the blockchain
It also includes augmented reality, an idea that takes virtual reality a step further. In virtual reality, elements of the digital world are superimposed on top of reality, think Pokémon Go or Facebook’s recent Ray-Ban collaboration on smart glasses.
Now, tech industry figures who speak of the "metaverse" are typically interested in digital platforms that include some of the following: feature sets that overlap with legacy web services or real-world activities; real-time 3D computer graphics and personalized avatars; Social interaction with people, which is less competitive and targeted than traditional games; supports users to create their own virtual items and environments; links with external economic systems, allowing people to profit from virtual goods; see Looks great for virtual and augmented reality headset designs...
But in most current discussions, the Metaverse is arguably not a fixed set of properties. It's the ideal term for the digital world of the future, where we feel a more tangible connection to our real lives and bodies.
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01. Re-challenge the cultural identity model?
In the metaverse, people don't wander around alone. They will have friendships, relationships (with autonomous NPCs, holograms or others) which will influence their decisions.
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▼Fantasy metaverse space
To celebrate Nike Air Max Day, officially held on March 26 this year, Nike transformed the Nike flagship store in Shanghai into an Air Max wonderland and held a multi-day sneaker conference at the historic Tassel Club in Hong Kong.
Wonderlabs collaborated with Nike at the NIKEiD studio to create a live interactive NIKEiD projection map: every tap on the iPad NIKEiD interface instantly projects a live reaction on the 3D printed shoe – the experience ends in an animation User's ID.
In this context, analyzing the behavior and approach of companies towards users is imperative and will require transitioning their marketing strategies from online ad buying to existing in a shared virtual economy.
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▼VR virtual fitting room
The Metaverse is about identity like never before. As such, the concept of shopping is at the heart of the Metaverse, closely related to the concept of personalization, and in this regard, the world of fashion will be an important part of characterizing or being represented by an avatar.
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02. Reverse the real world?
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▼Facebook changed its name to "META"
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he will rename his company Meta to refer to the "metaverse", a new virtual universe composed of virtual and augmented reality technologies.
The predictable move has regulators deeply concerned - adding to concerns already deeply concerned, especially against the backdrop of Francis Haugen's revelations and the widespread targeting of social media by state-backed hackers , forcing regulators and governments to turn their attention to two rather important but often overlooked values, such as privacy and security.
Expose reports that Facebook harms children and undermines democracy. Facebook puts "astronomical profits in front of people," harming children and destabilizing democracies, a whistleblower said.
For example, an advertiser targeting you in a virtual world might not just respond to old-world data like your age and gender: your body language, your physiological responses, knowing who you're interacting with and how?
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▼Coincidence of reality and virtuality, virtual avatar
The idea behind Meta is to expand its reach from a mere global social network to the digital infrastructure of everyday life.
It wants to be the imperceptible medium that permeates our entire existence, and the idea is that Meta will be a holding company responsible for a thriving ecosystem of interconnected products and services, all seamlessly integrated into one A hybrid world with the ability to extract profits effortlessly at every point of the system.
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03. Metaverse capitalism
The most profitable businesses under digital capitalism are basically advertising agencies. Apple can indeed get away with selling high-end consumer products.
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▼The world of science fiction is like an unreal world
Metaverse capitalism will see big tech companies moving more towards hardware and infrastructure as it becomes more valuable to have a framework that can provide other services. It's not just about collecting data, it's about owning servers and the digital world.
We've already seen big tech companies start investing heavily in undersea internet cables and data centers to reduce the cost of data transmission. Alphabet and Amazon have each invested nearly $100 billion in infrastructure and other fixed-value assets. The growing perception that tech companies are lean business models following in the footsteps of Nike and other major outsourcing firms is outdated.
The second core change is the diversification of revenue sources and the decentralization of the role of data and advertising. In the first quarter of 2021, 97.2% of Facebook's total revenue came from its advertising business. The Metaverse offers a wider range of revenue streams, from the hardware it runs on to the games, services and content within it.
Meta could start offering subscription-based content; it could sell virtual properties and experiences, and it could charge other companies to enter its world. The data-to-advertising funnel is still there, but it will be part of a larger portfolio.
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▼ Trailer for "Ready Player One" - Warner Bros. Pictures
It's hard to imagine that Meta Corp would be willing to let its competitors set up shop in their Metaverse, or compete on an equal footing with them. But others may be keen to invest if the hardware is showing signs of starting to pay off.
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04. A fast-approaching reality
Stephenson's original vision for the Metaverse was exciting, but also fraught with the possibility of online and real-world harm, from addiction to crime to the erosion of democratic institutions.
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▼In virtual reality, grasp the world with one hand
His metaverse points to a particular definition of freedom, namely: property ownership is a tool; it functions; it creates economic incentives.
Depending on the ideological orientation, this may sound more dystopian than utopian, but there is no doubt that it is realistic: we are still talking about human nature - which is usually greedy and selfish.
Given the current tensions between Big Tech and governments around the world over privacy, free speech, and online harm, serious consideration should be given to what metaverse the masses want to create, and who gets to create, own, and police it.
In fact, many see the Metaverse as a financial opportunity, and we all agree that the future is disruptive and revolutionary. Hopefully we now have the opportunity to rewrite history and ensure a more free, equal and fair world.
From a cyberpunk conceptual vision to a fast-approaching reality, and why it's a potential game-changer. A collective virtual shared space created by the fusion of virtual augmented physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality and the Internet.
In some visions of the Metaverse, virtual things in the virtual world actually represent real things in the real world. For example, you might fly a virtual drone in the metaverse to fly an actual drone in the real world.
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▼Screenshots from Decentraland, where you can actively interact with many other players
While there isn't yet a shared metaverse, there are companies working on creating one that would be an extension of the real world while paralleling it. Things like augmented reality can bridge the gap between everyday life and what's happening on the internet, all under the umbrella of the Metaverse.
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05. In an immersive metaverse
During the pandemic, so much has had to go digital, from socializing to shopping to working, that it sometimes feels as if we've entered a virtual world.
In many ways, the Metaverse is the ultimate expression of social technology, and as we've seen, it's this massive, immersive one-stop ecosystem where users can play games, buy digital assets, including real estate. Products, going to school, watching the news, meeting people, and more.
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▼ In the Metaverse, students from anywhere in the world may come together for a class trip to Ancient Rome
Digital operators like Orange have long been working on how their products and services could embrace the immersive habits of customers in the future to imagine and prepare for a fully augmented and intelligent world.
“In B2C, we support our customers with new forms of usage and entertainment through AR/VR/360° technologies,” explains Morgan Bouchet, Director of Digital Content Innovation and Head of XR. "Live a concert live in a virtual environment, watch an immersive video of a football match or immerse yourself in a 360° documentary with dolphins... We have also reintegrated parts of the Orange TV service ecosystem into our 'Immersive Now' testbed" .
Orange virtual exhibit, allowing their beta customers to experience immersive 2D content in an idyllic setting wearing an Oculus Quest headset or simply via their phone/tablet.
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▼Metaverse users can buy and sell virtual pets, including unicorns
While this technology will open up a range of hopeful and exciting possibilities for us, it also raises some fundamental questions: Will we feel any more connected or alone than we do today?
The "Metaverse" will be created by all of us - but instead of focusing entirely on building this separate and fully virtual reality disconnected from the physical world, efforts should be made to shape the future of the Internet, designed to make life better for humans and reach Earth The level of "balance" needed to sustain life for us and future generations.
