In recent months some of the leading players on the digital scene have shared, with all of us, “where” they will invest in research and innovation over the coming years. We are talking about the building of the Metaverse, a word that is increasingly popular in discussions, technical and otherwise. Will the Metaverse really manage to enter all of our lives? And what do we mean when we talk about the Metaverse? What could its fields of application be? Let’s look into it together.
What is the Metaverse?
Talking about the Metaverse is rather complex. It is like venturing into unexplored territory, a land that does not yet appear on any topographic map. There are people who, in trying to define what the Metaverse might be, have stuck their necks out. However, I believe that its very existence is impossible to define. But I like a challenge very much, which is why, after analysing many different definitions of the Metaverse, I am giving you the one I consider most fitting. It was given by Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games (the creators of Fortnite), in an interview a few weeks ago:
“It is clear that none of us knows exactly what the Metaverse is or will be. There are various ideas about it. The Metaverse could be a real-time 3D social medium in which you do not exchange messages asynchronously, but meet in a virtual world where it is possible to do essentially anything.”
We still do not know exactly what the Metaverse is, but we can take a few interesting cues from this definition: Tim Sweeney stresses that it will certainly be an online environment where people will be able to meet virtually.
So perhaps we are standing before (or in the “notorious” presence of) Web 3.0. Or even beyond…
What could the fields of application of the Metaverse be?
Its areas of application will be many and they too are hard to pin down exactly. In any case, we can already imagine a number of them:
- Gaming and entertainment
- Fitness and virtual gyms
- Education and schooling
- Commerce and virtual products (products that can be previewed in a Metaverse and, in all likelihood, bought with cryptocurrencies)
- The world of work (it sets itself the precise goal of evolving beyond the limits of remote work)
- Virtual tourism
Let’s look at them one by one in more detail, to start getting into the logic of the Metaverse.
Gaming and entertainment
Always a driving sector for technological development, this first area of application could involve most of the curious, at least in an early phase. But we are not talking only about individual users, but about companies that find new opportunities for growth in the link between video games and the Metaverse.
Through video games, especially the virtual ones that will make up the Metaverse, brands will be able to come into close contact with their consumers in an entirely new way: unexpectedly and engagingly, they will be able to interact with their target audience inside a virtual space.
Fitness and virtual gyms
In this second field of application, the strengths are intuitive. Think, for example, of a yoga class with VR headsets that let us have our teacher in front of us, even though they are physically on the other side of the world.
Matthew Ball, a managing partner of Epyllion Co. who co-founded the Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF, explained in an interview the impact the Metaverse will have on this sector:
“One of its biggest impacts on sport will be on how we watch games. Rather than being stuck on a sofa, fans will have the chance to watch a game more as if they were in the stands. In fact, everyone could one day have the best seats in the house, with their fantasy score or live bets shown on the jumbotron. Fans at home could also be able to influence the game the way a screaming crowd can.”
On top of that, it will be possible to sell more tickets than the real capacity of a stadium, as well as to give the most distant fans the opportunity to enjoy the atmosphere of being at the arena. But there is more. It seems that the Metaverse will make it possible to meet famous athletes, compete with them in a match or two and even decorate spaces with your own NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens).
From classic schooling to blended education
In the Covid era, many of us experienced, directly or indirectly, the discomfort of distance learning. With VR headsets, on the other hand, the experience of studying remotely would be far more engaging and immersive. The challenge the world of education now has to take up is to integrate the online way of working and studying into education.
We already have interesting case studies, such as that of South Korea which, thanks to an educational experiment, demonstrated the effectiveness of mixed or blended education, that is, the combination of real-time and pre-recorded content. The Korean institute in question plans to set up a virtual Kenya-KAIST campus, 60 km outside Nairobi. The goal? To go “beyond” online education by creating a Metaverse that provides support for managing classes and creates an engaging learning experience, using the latest digital technologies.
Commerce and virtual products
Think of a product that can be previewed in a dedicated Metaverse and bought by paying, in all likelihood, in cryptocurrencies. The latter find in the Metaverse their ideal outlet and the natural setting in which to unfold their progressive potential. So, even though we are still in a primordial phase of this interesting novelty, we can already start talking about e-commerce that will become m-commerce. There are brands such as Forever 21 and Nike that are leading the way: they have in fact created virtual shops in the belief that the futuristic Metaverse will transform the entire commerce sector.
Is working in the Metaverse possible?
The stated goal would be precisely to overcome the limits of remote work. Let’s imagine our office, our desk and all our colleagues. Now let’s take off the headset: we no longer see anyone. On this point, it was the company of the millionaire Zuckerberg itself that advertised the creation of its Metaverse by pushing very hard on this field of application. Creating a virtual workplace would make it possible to save on transport, to the benefit of costs, time and pollution. Just think of the many people forced to live far apart for all sorts of reasons: instead of video calling each other, they will be able to meet in the Metaverse. Surreal? Perhaps this reality is closer than we think.
Virtual tourism
Covid, the climate emergency and rising costs are factors that have shown the vulnerability of the travel sector. We have seen it in people’s growing preference for places closer to home. So how do we reverse direction? The idea of interactive virtual worlds could help change the way customers interact with other places and replace some cases of physical travel, without harming the sector. What do you think?
It is true that interactive virtual reality experiences can recreate real-world environments and so give travellers a clear idea of what to expect when they visit a particular destination, but can a trip in VR really replace the physical, real experience?
In the tourism sector the Metaverse offers many opportunities to hotels and travel agencies. Thanks to this new technology, a hotel can, for example, show everything it has to offer in an immersive way. By creating digital avatars, it can also let travellers walk through a realistic reproduction of the property and understand the real size of the rooms.
Where will the Metaverse take us?
So are we late? Perhaps not. We are late neither in talking about it nor in getting ready to welcome it. We are talking about a change as rapid in its developments as it is epoch-making in its scope. It is an evolution that will probably be with us for a long time.
Stay tuned!