PwC Research Report Continues to Praise the Multiverse. Is It Intent on Entering Web3?

In February, PwC published a 17-page report titled “2023 Metaverse Outlook.” Perhaps because the content was quite exciting, it attracted many domestic media to excerpt, forward, and comment on it.

In fact, since 2022, PwC has published a lot of "research and insights" on the metaverse on its official website in China. Its views have both a global perspective and a very "Chinese" perspective, forming a unique perspective for "understanding" the metaverse.

We try to see from PwC's numerous articles how they understand the metaverse and what they are up to.

Metaverse Outlook: Companies will compete for new skills that were not needed in the past

In the latest report, PwC summarized its six insights. They are as follows:

1. Business operators will become super users of the Metaverse;
2. The success or failure of the metaverse depends on credibility;
3. Artificial intelligence and extended reality will work together to help the metaverse drive transformation;
4. The Metaverse will become the inevitable path for every manager;
5. The Metaverse will become a force for good;
6. Companies will compete for new skills that they never needed in the past.

The sixth point is quite interesting. It believes that the Metaverse will bring some "new skills", which will in turn give rise to new professions and jobs. For example, the Internet has given rise to many new jobs.

As a content creator, this feeling is personal and concrete. The changes that the Internet has brought to the content industry can be described as "horrible", such as the decline of print media and the rise of self-media. This is almost the only huge change brought about by the Internet, especially mobile Internet. Today, most companies have a new media operation position, and the team of "WeChat editors" is huge.

In comparison, the impact of the new profession of anchor is equally astonishing. Let me ask you, today, do you open Douyin or Kuaishou more often or turn on the TV more often?

What new jobs will the Metaverse give rise to? The first ones that come to mind are 3D modelers and 3D artists, who are the architects of the Metaverse virtual world. Of course, more technical data scientists, data analysts, and security personnel may also be in-demand positions. There is another position that will have a lot of room for imagination, the "Zhongzhiren" behind the Metaverse virtual people, who will be the real operators behind the Metaverse IP.

Among the above 6 items, item 2, “The success or failure of the Metaverse depends on credibility”, seems very confusing at first glance. What it actually means is that current challenges such as data security and privacy protection have largely hindered enterprises from entering the Metaverse.

You may be confused. These problems are not unique to the Metaverse, but also exist in the Internet. The reason why PwC came up with this conclusion has a lot to do with its definition of the Metaverse. In its Metaverse worldview, Web3 is a core part. The so-called data security, privacy, etc. in Web3 are often closely related to assets. Behind the security issue is actually the "asset issue."

Is the real metaverse built on Web3?

Perhaps because PwC is an asset management platform and accounting firm, they have more understanding and recognition of Web3 involving digital assets.

Image source: PwC China official website

As can be seen from the above figure, it divides the metaverse into two types: "private" and "open". From a simple classification, the private metaverse is the metaverse in the current popular concept, and the open metaverse is the addition of Web3, that is, a digital economy with digital assets as the core, which is based on blockchain technology.

The difference between the open metaverse and the private metaverse can be seen from the literal meaning. The former emphasizes openness, user ownership, etc.

What are the characteristics of the open metaverse? Based on the content of PwC, it can be summarized into the following six points.

1. Interoperability: Emphasizes that users can freely enter and exit and use different platform services based on Web3 infrastructure.

2. Economy: Providing “value exchange” for the metaverse using cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and other blockchain-based digital assets.

3. Sustainability: The Metaverse provides real-time feedback on the interactions of participants, and the Metaverse itself is sustainable and undisturbed.

4. Experience: Immersive 3D world.

5. Identity: Digital identity belongs to the user and is the core of data in the metaverse.

6. Governance: Users participate in rule-making.

Interestingly, the organization currently also provides services such as digital asset management and custody, as well as hidden value services such as NFT strategy and monetization, as well as audit and certification, taxation, and legal regulatory services.

It can be seen that this is obviously deeply involved in the Web3 field and has carried out related businesses. The gourd of the Metaverse seems to be selling Web3 medicine.

As Web2 moves into Web3, is 2B enterprise services the first choice?

PwC's series of content seems to be promoting the "metaverse", but the focus is on Web3. The reason behind this may be that Web3 has formed a relatively certain business model, and Web3 is very popular in the global entrepreneurial landscape.

This may not only be PwC's idea, many domestic companies have seen the opportunity here. Among them, the most radical ones should be cloud service providers.

According to media reports, Huawei Cloud took the lead in launching the Metaverse & Web3.0 Alliance during its 2023 Asia Pacific Partner Leadership Summit, and introduced multiple partners in the Web3 field, including BlockChain Solutions, Deepbrain Chain, Polygon, Morpheus Labs, etc. Public chain projects are prominently listed.

According to 36Kr, just the day before, Tencent announced its own Web3 partners at a Web3 theme summit, and released a development roadmap for a full set of blockchain API services and a new "Tencent Cloud Metaverse-in-a-Box" product.

In addition, this is also the case for Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Cloud, etc. Babbitt has hosted Amazon Cloud's Web3 event. They hope to build influence in the Web3 field and find partners through such events.

Web3 entrepreneurship continues to be hot. Web2 companies may not enter the market with products for ordinary C-end users, but B-end business, which is their area of ​​expertise.