Giants are rushing to get into the Metaverse: Is it a bubble or a trend?

Metaverse is hot! Not long ago, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg officially announced that the company was renamed "Meta". Global technology giants are leading the way, and domestic big companies are not idle either. Baidu applied to register the trademark named "metaapp", NetEase applied to register trademarks such as "NetEase Metaverse" and "Leihuo Metaverse", and domestic Internet giants such as Tencent and ByteDance have also begun to layout the Metaverse market.

So, what exactly is the Metaverse? What changes and opportunities will it bring to our lives? What is its relationship with technologies such as big data, blockchain, 5G, and AI? What industry opportunities does it portend?

01 What is the Metaverse

At the beginning of 2020, due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, many people began to work from home.

Although we cannot meet in the physical world, our connections are closer on the Internet, or in the digital world.

Think back to the invention of television, computers, and smartphones, and we have gradually paid less attention to the physical world.

Whether it is work or life, people are spending more and more time "online".

In the future, a highly digital world will emerge in the metaverse era, breaking the dimensional wall between the physical world and the virtual world.

Compared to the current Internet, the Metaverse will allow us to have a more immersive and realistic "online" experience.

It is a persistent, shared, three-dimensional virtual space.

Everyone can communicate, work, and shop in this world more immersively, with a high degree of freedom in time and space.

The metaverse is a new digital space that carries humanity’s future lifestyle.

A simpler definition is: the Metaverse is the next generation of the Internet, that is, the third generation of the Internet.

Of course, the Metaverse is still in its early stages, and people in the technology, business, investment and other industries have different understandings of the Metaverse from their own perspectives.

02 Why build the Metaverse

The metaverse did not appear suddenly. Since the birth of the Internet, the development of network technology and the world's digitalization process have been moving towards the metaverse.

Metaverse-related technologies are still in their infancy, so technology companies are making early preparations.

The reason why major Internet companies are planning to develop the Metaverse is because the Metaverse is the next generation wave of the Internet.

The first generation of the Internet (Web 1.0) is the PC (personal computer) Internet, which has been developed from 1994 to the present.

The advantage of PC Internet is the efficient transmission of information. Therefore, applications such as online news, online search, e-mail, instant messaging, and e-commerce have become popular.

The second generation of the Internet (Web 2.0) is the mobile Internet, which began around 2008 and is still exciting today.

Smartphones are "always online" and "anytime, anywhere", making mobile Internet an important part of many people's lives.

Now, there have been two eras of PC Internet Web 1.0 and mobile Internet Web 2.0, and the Metaverse will be the third.

Ma Huateng believes that the door between the virtual world and the real world has been opened, and whether it is from virtual to real or from real to virtual, we are committed to helping users achieve a more realistic experience.

From consumer Internet to industrial Internet, application scenarios have also been opened up. Communications and social networking are becoming video-based, video conferencing and live broadcasting are on the rise, and games are also becoming cloud-based.

With the application of new technologies, new hardware and software such as VR in various scenarios, he believes that another major reshuffle is about to begin.

Just like the transformation of mobile Internet, those who cannot get on board will gradually fall behind.

03 What will the Metaverse bring?

The Internet has once again reached a new transformation node, and the critical window period has quietly opened.

Each round of Internet upgrade will bring huge new opportunities for innovation, entrepreneurship and wealth upgrading. New giants are often born in the key window period of industrial upgrading.

(1) Reshaping self-image and identity system

Almost everyone uses social media, and digital images such as avatars and signatures may appear in front of our friends more often than our real selves.

In the future, digital image will be a rigid requirement for everyone to enter the metaverse, and will be the external image and social identity of everyone in the metaverse.

Every resident of the metaverse needs to have his or her own digital image.

(2) Deep integration of digital economy and real economy

According to Matthew Ball, a venture capitalist who has long studied the metaverse, the metaverse needs to form a fully mature economy.

In addition to information exchange, the metaverse will also realize economic interoperability between the digital world and the physical world.

This will form a complete closed-loop economic system that is highly digital and intelligent, and realize the integration of the digital economy and the real economy.

The higher-level digital economy in the metaverse, namely the metaverse economy, is an intelligent economy, an inclusive economy, a creative economy, and a data economy.

But no matter how the metaverse develops, its development results must be aimed at promoting the development of the real economy.

The most critical application scenario of the Metaverse is the industrial scenario. In the Metaverse, people from all over the world can communicate and collaborate efficiently.

Fully connected smart devices will work together effectively, and industrial chain collaboration will become more transparent and efficient.

Putting assets on the blockchain is expected to become a mainstream business model, which can promote the integration of digital assets and physical assets into "twins" and comprehensively improve asset liquidity and value.

(3) Digital culture booms

When it comes to digital art, many people's first impression is digitized flat artwork.

But the combination of art and digital technology goes far beyond that.

If an artist can use his brush to paint trees, rivers, and animals in three-dimensional space, and draw the magnificent Milky Way in the night sky, what kind of feeling will the audience have when they walk into this work and watch it immersively?

Art is the natural consciousness of culture, and the explosion of digital art is a microcosm of the great prosperity of digital culture.

Summarize

In the era of the metaverse, the material constraints of the physical world will become fewer and fewer, and creativity will be the only scarce resource.

In 2020, new business forms such as trendy shoe culture, joint design, and blind box economy have emerged. The core logic behind these new business forms is IP operation.

The Metaverse era is an era of great development and prosperity of digital culture. IP, as a symbol of cultural embodiment, will also usher in another round of explosion.