No, this viral video does not show the future of your races in the "metaverse"

Like nearly 8 million people, you may have seen this viral video in recent days.

A video presented as the future of your races in the famous metaverse, this virtual universe promoted as the future of the Internet by several major players in "Tech", including the largest of them, the Facebook group, which has become Meta .

This is how Walmart envisions Shopping in the #Metaverse.

Thoughts?

💭 pic.twitter.com/5l7KhoBse7

- Homo Digitalis (@DigitalisHomo) January 3, 2022

What you saw

In this rather impressive video, we seem to virtually walk in a Walmart supermarket, a giant in the overseas sector, to buy wine or a bottle of milk, with the assistance of a virtual employee for each of your purchases.

Moreover, this video "offered" the possibility of purchasing said products, in reality.

The video quickly became very popular on social media.

It was notably disseminated by the personality accounts of the American media, impressed by the visual rendering.

Grocery shopping in the #Metaverse gonna be cray cray. $ WMTpic.twitter.com / oJCnRD2OJ8

- Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) January 5, 2022

Carl Quintanilla, NBC morning show presenter and renowned journalist, fell in love with this impressive video.

“Shopping in the #metaverse is going to be crazy,” he says ecstatically.

With over 300,000 followers, it is quickly helping to make said video popular with over 5,000 shares.

Many Internet users have also expressed their wonder very quickly.

Love it !!!

@Walmart wow 👌 pic.twitter.com/F3x6yqp6fS

- darrow.eth (@TheFarrow) January 6, 2022

What it really is

But now, it is not. A quick Google search reveals that this clip was actually made for Walmart by a digital agency called Mutual Mobile in 2017 to wow influencers at South by Southwest Festivals, better known as SXSW. A collection of music, film and interactive media festivals held annually since 1987 during the month of March in Austin, Texas.

“As retailers race to keep up with the convergence of technology, data and consumer habits, they are looking for ways to reimagine the shopping experience for their customers,” the digital agency explained in 2017. "A customer may never realize the staggering amount of technology behind a Walmart store," added the communicators at the origin of this clip.

“To attract customers and dispel the misconception that they are not as advanced as their more digital counterparts, they are also exploring the limits of emerging technology.

Walmart's virtual reality (VR) is a good example, ”concluded the digital agency.

This is referred to in marketing as a “brand activation” process but has nothing to do with the future metavers in vogue in Silicon Valley.

What it shows

The virality of these images perfectly illustrates the fact that the metaverse itself is not a new idea, as many Internet users have not been "fooled" by this viral video. For the leading specialist site in new technologies, The Verge, this is "just a rehash of decades-old ideas about how we might live, work and socialize in virtual environments." .

This example among others would actually show how a lot of marketing and money was spent to sell to the public an experience at least as old as "Second Life", Linden Lab's virtual reality project started in 2003. "La La reason people are willing to believe that a four-year-old video shows the best the Metaverse can offer is that the Metaverse has yet to offer anything better "than reality or a technology of the past, even quipped. the American site. The Verge tackles the craze for a still very nebulous project.

Because if the metaverse is on everyone's lips, its future is still very unclear at this stage.

The concept designates the emergence of parallel universes connected to each other, to which humans will access via augmented and virtual reality equipment, such as the Oculus system.

Born from science fiction, it has been all the rage since Facebook announced colossal investments in this area and rebranded itself as Meta.

But for now, this metaverse remains more than ever… virtual.