everything you need to know about it
You’ve probably heard the term ‘metaverse’ in the past few months. It refers to a collection of virtual worlds that are connected to each other. We explain why it is often associated with Facebook and what you need to know about it.
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From sci-fi to Second Life
Long before we thought of Facebook, the term ‘metaverse’ already appeared in the 1992 science fiction book ‘Snow Crash’. In that book people were in contact with each other through avatars in virtual 3D worlds. According to this novel by author Neal Stephenson, the metaverse would become the direct successor to the worldwide web.
Several small projects started that wanted to make the metaverse from Snow Crash a reality, but a well-known fact from 2003 is ‘Second Life’. That is a virtual application in which you start a second life. You can buy clothes in this world, visit the virtual bar, follow a concert or buy your own real estate. Companies such as Adidas, Nissan and Nokia sold their virtual products in Second Life in exchange for virtual coins. Politicians from D66 and CDA even hung virtual election posters on it, VPRO knows.
Facebook, a ‘metaverse company’
Over the years, many different parties have worked on their own protocol for the metaverse, either a platform on the PC or in virtual reality (VR) that should bring virtual worlds together. A more modern example where the metaverse came to life in popular culture is Steven Spielberg’s 2018 film “Ready Player One.”
Yet the concept of the metaverse has only really come back into the limelight thanks to Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO behind the social networks Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, spoke to The Verge in July 2021 about his plans to turn Facebook “a metaverse company”. A few months later, the company would also rebrand itself as ‘Meta’.
A broad ‘Horizon’ of applications
But what does Meta really want to achieve with his metaverse? In addition to the well-known social media apps, Meta also has Oculus under its wing, a company that has been making virtual reality headsets for years. So you can look around in virtual worlds and also perform realistic actions on the basis of controllers. For now, games are the main uses you’ll find on the Rift headsets, but Meta wants to go way beyond that.
In October, Oculus talked about its plans around the metaverse. Horizon Home will be a social platform where you meet your friends as virtual avatars. In addition, you will be able to participate in virtual experiences in a similar way with Horizon Workrooms and in Horizon Venues you will be able to attend events in VR. Think of things like concerts, sports and live comedy. You can already test all these applications in early access on Oculus headsets.
Millions of virtual land
In other words, the metaverse is a concept that is still in its infancy for Meta and Meta is not the only party that would like to get the keys to the metaverse. In 2020 Decentraland came, a virtual world that developers are still working on to get it working, but where people already spend millions of euros for a piece of virtual real estate, Fortune knows that. Payments are invariably made with crypto coins and virtual art is also traded in the form of NFTs.
The metaverse already has enthusiastic fans, but the term has also become a buzzword, especially in business circles, according to Axios. Many companies talk about the metaverse and their place in the virtual world. In the event of disappointing financial performance, we see that Meta also likes to refer to the metaverse, despite the 9 billion euros loss that Oculus has accumulated in 2021.
Is the metaverse a keeper?
It remains to be seen whether the metaverse ever becomes more than a concept or a fashion trend. Will we all soon be sitting on the couch with VR glasses on our nose, or will the efforts that companies are making now slowly fade away once the corona pandemic is over and social life can continue without borders? Only time will tell.
