What is Metaverse?
As probably most of you already know, Facebook changed its name to Meta during the Fall of last year. Along with the new brand name, the company introduced a new service called Metaverse, which in the words of Philip Rosedale, the creator of the online game Second Life, is three-dimensional internet populated with people. Nevertheless, when it comes to Meta’s metaverse, the simple descriptions just won’t cut it anymore. The project evolved into an entirely new industry, which is now gaining more and more interest from the private and public sectors.
Why is it Special?
While it still remains a mystery for common people, entrepreneurs from all kinds of trades begin to look into ways how they can monetize from this new “thing”. Although digital real estate accompanied various metaverses for quite a while now, since Facebook decided to go all-in on the virtual world, digital estate prices saw an increase between 400% and 500%. A report by Grayscale estimated the potential value of the sector at $1 trillion dollars in the near future.
This valuation might seem crazy to you (it was to me when I found out), bear with me for a while.
For some virtual world is as important as the real one, with the Covid-19 facilitating the move into the online channels, setting up some offices in the virtual world seem like a natural next step. The largest investment bank JP, recently published a white paper, illustrating the hype versus the reality. The company is now looking into new opportunities and potential ways to develop the platform in terms of commercial perspectives. Disney is another firm, already taking steps in ensuring their future Metaverse presence will be profitable and successful. This entertainment giant recently appointed an executive to specifically lead the entertainment giant’s strategy for the metaverse. Even China started to highly invest in Metaverse’s constituents.
Nevertheless, as with every novel technology, this concept is very risky. Moreover, being crypto-based it carries some degree of volatility from cryptocurrencies.
What’s the Future of Metaverse?
Well… If only I knew. Jokes aside, with the company whose values are: “Move fast”, “build awesome things” and “live in the future”, we can be sure that the road to success will be a bumpy one. However, seeing the initial interest and the relatively fast adoption on a commercial level, I believe there is a huge potential in this service, accompanied by countless paths of development. Estate market, advertising, banking, entertainment and who know what more will see its virtual equivalent.