If you’ve paid attention to the chatter surrounding Facebook’s transformation into “Meta,” you’ve probably run into the concept of the metaverse. In recent years, the metaverse has become the name for the “next generation of the internet,” much like Google
What is the Metaverse?
The metaverse is the name we’ve given to what we expect the internet to become: a collision between the physical and digital worlds, when VR and augmented reality bridge the gap between the physical and the virtual to interact intimately.
While this seems a bit vague, metaverse enthusiasts believe it will essentially be a 3D reality overlaying the real world, wherein people can shop, game and conduct business in shared virtual spaces.
For instance, Mark Zuckerberg describes the metaverse as “an embodied internet that you’re inside of,” where “creation, avatars, and digital objects” are central to self-expression and lead to “entirely new experiences and economic opportunities.”
Christina Wootton, the vice president of brand partnerships at Roblox
The Rise of the Metaverse
Hollywood has pumped out a few variants of a future metaverse, with Ready Player One and Free Guy toying with fanciful realities that don’t yet exist. And they’re not ahead of vogue; rather, they’re right on time, as many Silicon Valley darlings like Facebook, Microsoft
But despite aggressive corporate posturing, including Facebook’s $10 billion investment, a “true” metaverse eludes us, and probably will for years, or perhaps decades. Of course, that hasn’t stopped many companies from designing building blocks and proto worlds that will likely become integral to the metaverse in the future.
Many, like Facebook, have already taken steps into virtual reality (VR), where futuristic goggles and top-notch graphics plunge users into realities that don’t exist – but look, feel, and even sound like they do. Other technologies have arisen recently too, such as augmented-reality smart glasses. And in the future, we can likely expect other screen-based access points to arise in the form of smartphones, PCs and TVs.
What Does the Metaverse Look Like Now?
While these tools aren’t what the metaverse is, they are the earliest iteration of our ability to tangibly access such a world. A more accurate representation of what the metaverse looks like can be found in virtual worlds like Roblox and Fortnite – though these, too, fall short.
Instead, think of these user-driven realities like 3D “walled gardens” that contain metaverse-like experiences within a closed ecosystem. And much like the early internet, it will take time and innovation for the metaverse to move beyond its artificial constraints into something more.
Still, that hasn’t stopped users, brands, and even celebrities from capitalizing on the early promise of the metaverse.
For instance, Fortnite has held several virtual concerts for users, with big names like Travis Scott and Ariana Grande headlining. Roblox followed suit with Twenty-One Pilots kicking off their latest tour in their virtual environment.
And brands like Vans, Netflix
The Future is Here with Virtual and Augmented Reality
Facebook has also been edging into the metaverse for years with its Oculus VR headsets. Recently, though the product has been largely panned at the outset, the company released a “Horizons Workrooms” virtual office packed with cartoonish avatars conducting business in a virtual conference room. Microsoft’s virtual collaborations, powered by its Mesh and HoloLens technologies, have thus far proved equally cringeworthy, though a step in the right direction.
But perhaps no modern company has more eloquently and effectively produced an early metaverse experience than Alphabet’s Google Maps. The popular navigation app combines the physical and virtual with its digital road networks that track users’ locations, road conditions, and even police presence in real time.
And with Street View and Google Earth, made possible by Google’s traveling camera cars, you can virtually “visit” nearly any place in the world to look around, go on scavenger hunts, and see how others live. Some versions of these apps also incorporate directions and location-based information over the maps and camera views, augmenting your reality digitally.
Companies Piling Behind the Metaverse
With all the potential and hype around the metaverse, it’s no surprise that companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Nvidia, Unity Software, and even Roblox are scrambling to take their slice of the profits.
But to be a true working metaverse, all these companies, their technologies, and the resulting virtual worlds will need to interoperate seamlessly. This involves each industry stepping up to create and share new technologies, hardware, software, and most of all, talent.
That said, it’s difficult to imagine that any of these user-hungry companies would be willing to share or part with their users, let alone pool resources and communities. And the need for interconnectivity certainly hasn’t stopped any one company from touting itself as the leader in the next generation of the internet with their branded technologies, applications, and tools.
That said, each company has thus far approached the metaverse with slightly different ambitions, often based on their current business plan and specialties.
Unsurprisingly, Facebook and Roblox see the metaverse as a social expanse that will provide users with fun and social connection.
Microsoft, on the other hand, is focused on the business and collaboration potential that the metaverse offers the working landscape.
And the likes of Nvidia and Unity Software foresee billions in potential profits resulting from building the technologies that will ultimately power the future metaverse.
What’s the Takeaway?
Today, the metaverse is largely marketing hype – but so were computers and the internet when they first appeared. And in less than a century, humanity has grown from typewritten letters to AI-based marketing and business plans. Once the metaverse arrives, chances are that it, too, will thrive, just like the internet at large has.
But for now, as an investor, the key to profiting off the metaverse isn’t futuristic promises of connection and collaboration. In fact, investing in metaverse companies for the metaverse may still prove a questionable decision at this stage, as it’s likely that many companies will rise and fall to bring such an expansive collective vision to fruition.
Instead, you can invest in the metaverse without saying you’re investing in the metaverse by looking to the companies generating the real revenues: those invested in building the infrastructure and designing practical, real-world iterations.
For instance, Nvidia will likely play a strong hand in designing the artificial intelligence and semiconductors that will power the metaverse, no matter what it looks like. Gaming companies like Roblox and Epic Games may prove the creative minds behind the actual experience we share. And VR ventures run by the likes of Facebook, Microsoft, and Google have already granted us the first tools that bring us tangible access to the metaverse firsthand.
If you’re a big believer in the metaverse – or even if you’re not – the time to jump on the bandwagon to the future is soon, if not now. While some of the hype may die down as companies grapple with the nitty-gritty of marrying reality with the digital, those companies that tough it out and design the underpinnings of the metaverse stand to gain the most.
And when the time comes, their investors will celebrate right along with them.
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