Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revived a term that has been circulating in the tech world for some time and has also been central to the social media giant’s internal operations for some time: the metaverse, the new internet which will be made up of virtual worlds. “The Metaverse is the ultimate expression of social technology and will be one of the most exciting projects of our lives,” says Mark Zuckerberg.
1. What is the metaverse?
The Metaverse is an immersive digital online experience, as if you were in a game or virtual world. The term is attributed to author Neal Stephenson, who first used the term “metaverse” in his science fiction book Snow Crash.
“It’s a virtual environment where you can be present with people in digital spaces,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained during the quarterly results presentation. One can consider that it is about an “embodied internet”, where one is oneself in the Internet rather than looking at it. We believe it will be the successor to mobile internet. “
2. How to get there?
This will be possible through multiple devices, says Zuckerberg, each with a different quality: from the simple 2D level of a smartphone or laptop app to 3D glasses for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality ( VR). Facebook expects the AR / VR glasses of the future to be less bulky and become an almost natural extension of our body.
Mr. Zuckerberg has predicted for years that AR / VR glasses will be “the future of social experiences” and the next step after the smartphone. AR displays virtual objects above the real world, just like in the Pokemon Go game. With VR, the user is completely immersed in an artificial world.
3. What will we do in the virtual worlds?
Today, AR and VR are mostly associated with games. But according to Facebook, the applications are much broader. A nursing home resident could travel virtually from their wheelchair to Antarctica or to the Moon. The metaverse will allow you to visit a museum with your friends over the internet, or to play sports together.
The social media giant is also seeing applications in fields as diverse as healthcare (like remote surgery), education and training (where the location of the student or intern in the world doesn’t has more importance) and shopping.
Zuckerberg: “Within the Metaverse, you can spend time, play games with your friends, work, create and more. You will be able to do pretty much anything you can do on the Internet today, plus some activities that don’t make sense on the Internet as we know it today, like dancing. “
4. What does this mean for our social relationships?
The idea that VR is a form of escape and is primarily used to escape the real world is outdated, according to Facebook. Since other users can log in as well, the metaverse will be a social and real event, the social media giant predicts.
Zuckerberg: “The defining quality of the metaverse is presence – that is, the feeling of actually being there with another person, or in another place. “
5. Why is Zuckerberg revealing his plans now?
Augmented reality and virtual reality have been touted as the technologies of the future for years, but according to Facebook 2021 represents a pivotal time when both technologies face strong growth. 5G, the new form of ultra-fast internet that enables massive data exchange, will be the catalyst.
In the United States, 1 in 5 Internet users already use VR at least once a month. According to Facebook predictions, this number will increase dramatically, with particularly strong growth for AR.
6. How does Facebook want to make money from it?
In essence, Facebook is an online advertising company. The metaverse will revolutionize this area as well, as advertisers will not only have more “points of contact” with potential buyers in virtual 3D worlds, but they can also be anywhere in all three dimensions of the metaverse.
Facebook advises marketers to already think about what advertising could be like in a 3D world. There are already several examples in the gaming world, especially on the Roblox platform. It has been fifteen years since the game Second Life from Linden Labs, a kind of precursor of the metaverse, has experienced a real craze.
7. How important is this project to Facebook?
Facebook, which owns virtual reality company Oculus, has no plans to build the metaverse on its own, as it would require huge technological investments, ranging from 3D technology to payment systems. Zuckerberg: “It will require new protocols and standards, new devices, new chips and new software. He relies on collaboration with the entire technological community.
“Creation, avatars and digital objects will be at the heart of how we express ourselves, resulting in entirely new economic experiences and opportunities. I think this is one of the most exciting projects we will be working on in our lifetime. “
It will completely transform Facebook as a business, says Zuckerberg. “As well as being the next generation of the internet, the metaverse will also be the next chapter for us as a business. I expect that, in the years to come, people will start to see us not as a social media company, but as a metaverse company. “
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