METAVERSE

The metaverse, first depicted in the iconic The Matrix movie more than 20 years ago, is becoming a reality as brands look to merge the real and digital worlds into one, driving Web 3.0. The difference between Augemented Reality and Reality is reducing rapidly. Just what is the metaverse? It is a vision for a new environment to interact with other humans and bots to play games, conduct business, socialize and shop. Best described as a 3D World Wide Web, the metaverse aims to mimic the physical world with a digital facsimile and combines a myriad of technologies including but not limited to augmented reality, mixed reality, livestreaming, cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence. The metaverse moved from Hollywood fare to front-page news when Mark Zuckerberg declared Facebook a “metaverse company.” Microsoft laid out its “metaverse tech stack” to facilitate metaverse app development while Epic Games announced $1 billion of funding to support its long-term metaverse strategy. Now available on the New York Stock Exchange, Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that the market size for metaverse could reach $800 billion by 2024. While the metaverse may still be only a buzzword (only 38% of global consumers are familiar with the concept, according to a Wunderman Thompson Intelligence report), the time is now for brands to establish its roadmap for entry in this new CX universe. Wunderson Thompson breaks down the metaverse into four primary categories: MetaLives, which constitute ideas such as digital ownership and content creation through formats like digital art and nonfungible tokens; MetaSpaces, virtual venues or activations that blend aspects of the virtual world with the real one; MetaBusinesses, including the rise of “gamevertising,” where brands appear within the realm of VR/AR/MR MetaSocieties characterized by people closely wedding their real-life identities with channels like social media and cultivating “hyper-real identities online.” Metaverse Teleporatation Teleportation in the Metaverse is the act of users moving from one place to another without having to be physically there or use any physical means of transportation how we join Zoom meeting via a link but we’re doing that from our respective homes? Well, in the metaverse, instead of joining such meeting from our respective homes, we’ll actually be together in one space created by the host in the metaverse the host created this party space or gaming space, then invite his/her friends to join in the party or playing the games. Now, the friends won’t physically be there but they’ll turn up using their virtual reality device and appear. Since users will have their own avatar, the experience will feel so real that it seems they’re actually physically with the host in the space created by the host.