Discussions about the "Metaverse" are becoming more and more heated. Related concept stocks in the capital market are soaring, and many Internet giants are also gearing up to release products, announce strategies, and set up departments. Various courses, books, and tutorials have been released. I also often receive questions from some friends: What exactly is the Metaverse?
Below we will try to answer common questions in this regard in a concise way to help everyone quickly understand the ins and outs of the "metaverse".
1. What exactly is the “metaverse”?
A teacher joked that when a new concept first comes out, it can generally be described by three "clouds": incomprehensible, diverse opinions, and foggy. This may also be true for the "metaverse". There are currently two more recognized definitions:
Wikipedia:
The Metaverse is a future persistent and decentralized online three-dimensional virtual environment. This virtual environment will be accessible through virtual reality glasses, augmented reality glasses, mobile phones, personal computers and video game consoles. The Metaverse already exists in some limited form in platforms such as VRChat or games such as Second Life. The Metaverse has clear use cases in computer games, business, education, retail and real estate. The biggest limitation to the mass adoption of the Metaverse comes from the current technical limitations of the devices and sensors required to interact with real-time virtual environments.
Tsinghua University New Media Research Center:
The metaverse is a new type of Internet application and social form that integrates the virtual and the real, which is produced by the integration of multiple new technologies. It provides an immersive experience based on extended reality technology, generates a mirror image of the real world based on digital twin technology, and builds an economic system based on blockchain technology. It closely integrates the virtual world and the real world in the economic system, social system, and identity system, and allows each user to produce content and edit the world.
In short, I boil it down to the following four points:
The metaverse is a virtual space (different from the physical world in our daily life);
Although virtual, it provides an immersive experience that makes people feel as if they are in the scene (different from the two-dimensional and three-dimensional display interfaces on computers);
It also allows people to interact, socialize, work, and do business, and most importantly, to “make money” (if you go to work as usual during the day and use the “Metaverse” after get off work, it is just a simple online game);
In terms of interaction methods and identity recognition, it is both related to and different from the real world (otherwise it would just be a three-dimensional version of WeChat).
Of course, this is still a concept that is constantly developing and evolving, and its connotation is also constantly enriching and changing.
2. What is the “metaverse” not?
If we believe that the "metaverse" will become an important direction for future social and technological development, then what is the difference between it and some other concepts, or in other words, what is it not?
The Metaverse is not an online game
Games such as "Minecraft" and "Second Life" have long created models for creating content and social interaction in games. There are also many games that support AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), and MR (mixed reality) (such as the once popular "Pokemon"), but they do not fully meet the requirements of the "metaverse":
Limited audience – mainly young people
Task assignment - the script is written
It has nothing to do with real life - the most important thing is that you can't work, do business, or make money, which means that this must be a low-frequency usage scenario.
The Metaverse Is More Than Just Virtual Reality
Generally speaking, what we call "Virtual Reality" is the simulation, simulation and even control of reality. The development of related VR, AR, MR (collectively referred to as "XR") technologies has enabled it to be widely used in scientific research (such as understanding the structure of the human body), industrial design (such as designing mechanical structures), commercial sales (such as experiencing house types), social interaction (such as online meetings), digital twins (such as urban management), etc. There have been recent news reports that Apple will also launch its own VR glasses in the next few years.
However, "virtual reality" is more of a technical means. It is an important component and even the entrance to the metaverse, but it is not enough to cover all aspects of the metaverse.
3. What changes will the development trend of the “metaverse” bring to us?
As mentioned above, the Metaverse can be said to be the next stage of development of the Internet. It may bring huge changes to our lives, work and even society as a whole:
People can transfer a lot of work (especially collaboration-related) to the Metaverse, and truly achieve "a bosom friend is a friend indeed"! Representative examples in this regard are Horizon Workrooms launched by Facebook and Microsoft's Mesh;
Many existing social operations will change accordingly, such as business, real estate, education, shopping, etc. People can complete all purchases and experiences directly online, but it may be bad for some industries, for example, the demand for actual real estate will decrease;
How to "make money" in the "metaverse"? This requires the design of new economic models and financial tools. Some attempts have emerged in this regard, such as "GameFi" and NFT.
How do the "metaverses" of different industries, fields, and regions communicate with each other? In the future, there may be multiple "parallel universes", and communication and interaction between them will become an important demand.
People may actively or forcibly spend more and more time in the "metaverse". In my opinion, everything will turn into its opposite when it reaches its extreme. In the future, perhaps "offline" will become a luxury.
4. What conditions are needed for the construction and implementation of the “metaverse”?
To build a true "metaverse", a lot of technical conditions are needed, including:
Virtual reality for entry (XR glasses, gloves, IoT devices) and brain-computer interfaces (Tesla has proposed related products);
Huge computing power for high-speed computing (game engines, cloud computing power, artificial intelligence/NPC);
Information security and blockchain technology (especially NFT, I will write another article "Understanding NFT in Three Minutes" in the near future) used to achieve identity authentication and transactions in a virtual environment.
But more importantly, humans also need to formulate a series of rules, such as:
Governance rules: how to regulate and make decisions;
Social rules: how to interact and communicate;
Business rules: how to make money and spend money;
Technical rules: how to experience and participate;
Content rules: how to create and build;
Security rules: how to authenticate identity and protect privacy.
5. There are many companies in the market that focus on the concept of "metaverse". What do they do?
Currently, the main businesses of companies related to the Metaverse can be divided into the following categories:
Building infrastructure
VR glasses, sensing gloves, etc.
Developing the Metaverse Platform
Assist in content creation
Facilitate social collaboration
Creating a "Virtual and Real Fusion" Scene
Representative companies and products include:
Facebook/Meta: Enterprise-level interactive application "Horizon Workrooms"
Epic Games/Zhongqingbao, etc.: online games, online experience
Tencent/Discord: Online social networking
Microsoft: Gaming, augmented reality, enterprise services
However, at this early stage, it is indeed worthwhile to carefully analyze which products are truly in line with human nature and improve efficiency, and which are just trying to take advantage of the trend and grab traffic.
6. Where does the “metaverse” come from?
Here is the timeline of the concept of "metaverse":
In 1990, Mr. Qian Xuesen mentioned in a letter the future development vision of virtual reality technology in the "combination of virtual and real" and proposed the concept of "spiritual realm", which can be regarded as the originator of the concept of "metaverse".
In 1992, Neal Stephenson first proposed the term "Metaverse" in the science fiction book "Snow Crash". This is a virtual city where land can be purchased and buildings can be developed on it. Users of Metaverse can enter through high-quality personal virtual reality glasses or through high-quality public virtual reality glasses and interact with each other or software clients.
2000 to 2020: Various multiplayer online games that create virtual worlds began to become popular, among which the most representative ones are Microsoft's "My World" and "Second Life" developed by Linden Lab.
1999 to 2003: The Matrix trilogy was released, depicting a bleak future in which the human body survives on nutrient solution while the mind is trapped in a metaverse called the Matrix, where an intelligent machine called the Matrix uses the human body as a source of energy while distracting human attention.
The 2011 science fiction novel Ready Player One and the film of the same name describe a world in 2045 shrouded in energy crisis and global warming, causing widespread social problems and economic stagnation. Most people escape reality by entering a metaverse called OASIS through VR glasses and wired gloves. OASIS is both a massively multiplayer online game and a virtual society.
Using novels, stories, or film and television works to analyze phenomena and trends is indeed a "not very reliable" thing, because they belong to the category of "speech" rather than facts. However, for the birth and evolution of the current forward-looking concept of "metaverse", these science fiction works have played an extremely critical role, so I use them as an index of time.
This year, Facebook released a long video announcing its full transformation to the Metaverse and changing its name to Meta, creating a new concept and market for the increasingly inward-looking Internet industry and even the broader commercial market and public opinion field. After that, technology companies such as Microsoft, Epic Games, and Tencent began to join the game.
7. Why has the “metaverse” suddenly become popular this year?
I have discussed the development history of Metaverse over the past few years. So why did it suddenly become popular this year? Here are my analysis:
skill improved
The development of the cloud universe requires many technical conditions, including AI, XR, high-speed networks, blockchain, etc. These technologies have made great progress in recent years and have some practical implementation cases. Combined together, they constitute a possible imagination space.
Capital Export
Looking around, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, social networking, short videos, O2O and other tracks have all entered a stage of "involution". Don't get me wrong, these industries are developing very well, but once they enter the stage of seeing actual results, the imagination space in the early stage is greatly reduced. Where is the next "emerging growth point" of ten times or a hundred times? Capital is looking for high returns, and existing technology companies are also worried about missing the next wave of trends and are making extensive layouts.
But here, a sentence I often think of is K.K.'s famous saying: When it comes to innovation, the role of "money" is overestimated.
We all believe that innovation can only be achieved through huge investments, but if this is the case, then all innovative achievements would be monopolized by large companies. This is not the case.
Epidemic Development
Since last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the migration of many industries and enterprises from offline to online. Since more and more work and interactions can be completed online, and more and more business can be done remotely, is it possible to live, work, and entertain in another virtual space? This subtle idea has objectively accelerated the arrival of the "metaverse".
8. What opportunities and values does the “Metaverse” bring to individuals or businesses?
Finally, what does the proposal and development trend of the "Metaverse" mean to individuals or companies? Can we seize the opportunities and avoid possible bubbles and traps?
In today's Internet industry and public opinion, "Metaverse" has almost become a hot topic. However, we should be careful not to follow some hot topics blindly. Does anyone still remember the Libra plan proposed by Facebook? It caused so much heat, traffic and discussion at that time, which was unprecedented and attracted much attention. However, at least from the current point of view, it has become a short-lived product (now renamed Diem).
So, for the Metaverse, my suggestions are:
Enterprises can focus on the "virtual-real integration" scenario and see how to integrate it with their existing businesses, and truly leverage the "east wind" of the Metaverse to enhance customer experience and create industry value.
For investors, it is important to identify the early hype and bubbles of any technology concept and identify companies that may have long-term potential in infrastructure construction and services, such as providing engines, computing power, and underlying services for the Metaverse.
For individuals, it is better to "keep your eyes open" and embrace changes. At the same time, read more in-depth analytical articles and papers, and don't be confused by some temporary exaggerations. Amara's Law says: For new things, we tend to overestimate their short-term impact and underestimate their long-term effects. The same is true for the "metaverse".
