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What's going on in Metaverse? A snapshot of the next internet revolution and the questions you didn't dare ask - voila! Marketing and digital

2022-08-07T13:01:06.899Z


While the big brands are already starting to embrace Metaverse, the consumer audience is still lagging behind. Does web3 represent a new internet revolution or is it another marketing gimmick?


What's going on in Metaverse?

A snapshot of the next internet revolution and the questions you didn't dare ask

While the big brands are already starting to embrace Metaverse, the consumer audience is still lagging behind.

Does web3 represent a new internet revolution or is it another marketing gimmick that we will soon be fooled about?

Liron Elder asks the difficult questions and does not expect an immediate answer

Liron Elder

07/08/2022

Sunday, 07 August 2022, 15:29 Updated: 15:49

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The most interesting and professional conversation (Photo: Unsplash)

For some time now, the metaverse and the world of the 'new internet' (beyond digital), which has been talked about a lot lately, has been occupying my mind.



On the one hand, I have a wild, fanciful thought sitting on my shoulder with rock music in the background, which ignites a desire in me like a girl in an amusement park.

I believe that the day will come when we will put quantum theory into practice and be present at the same time in several spaces at the same time, with a full immersive presence in all our senses and maybe even new senses that the meta will introduce to us (Metaverse, not Facebook's meta, yes? Because it's two different things).



On the other shoulder sits a conservative and gentle thought, a bit party-ruining, with an attitude of justice and elevator music in the background, which guides the fantasy and tells another story whose essence is nothing more than an innocent evolutionary development that will not really change the world as we know it today and will not really spark a revolution, at least not soon .



Since it is not good for a person to dig alone, I met with kind-hearted and sharp-minded people who are involved in the field and the more I delve deeper, the more I realize that I understand nothing.



And before you ask for your reading minutes back, it is important for me to emphasize that you will not find a single word here about crypto or the future of NFT.

This text is a kind of proposal for a discussion regarding the points that are heard in each panel, only that most of them have a period after them and for me they are still with a question mark.

OK?

So what exactly is the Metaverse?

On the one hand, if we stop the horses and take a breath, the metaverse is nothing more than a developmental stage in the digital worlds, which simply provides a more sophisticated answer to the needs that exist today.



In fact, as the world advances and cyber fraud becomes more sophisticated, the need for protection increases accordingly.

A market that recognizes a demand creates a supply, and this is where the great tools that web3 knows how to offer were born: decentralized currencies, 3D, augmented reality (VR) and irreplaceable tokens (NFT).



On the other hand, it excites me to think, could it be that we were so lucky, to be present at such a significant point in our evolution as human beings?



Because if in previous generations we were interested in parallel planets and the question of whether we are not alone in this universe, then this metaverse came and taught us that if the aliens do not come to Muhammad, he will bring them beautifully himself.


Is it possible that in the near future (10 years according to predictions), we will live in a world that has two parallel universes?

The space we know from today's reality (which is still clear to us, but it too may be blurred in a few generations) and the new and creative space that allows us to reinvent ourselves (from being a desert rabbit or Gal Gadot to giving LeBron James fun or getting up from the wheelchair and running a marathon), When the only limits it has, without sounding tacky, are only our dreams and they will expand as we dream farther, higher and faster?



If so, today's children are already native citizens of this new world, and we, the ones with our feet here and our eyes there, will take time for us to understand, digest, process and participate in the new reality that is being created before our eyes.



Either way, wherever the change takes us, there is no doubt that it requires market education: education of the investors, education of organizations that will agree to enter this new field, which requires a change in the shape of the value propositions they are familiar with today, and education of the potential users who will be required to buy equipment and do some work on it to participate in the experience.


This change in perception takes time, because even though it started over a decade ago, we are the ones who are considered early adopters (assuming the readers are 20 years old or later, not to mention twice that or even more).



So what is the metaverse: a revolution, the discovery of a new universe, or a natural evolution of the known and known?

It's hard to say, for sure there is a movement happening here and it's a matter of time until it enters the mainstream and we all suck it up like dust to a Dyson 18 vacuum cleaner (don't google it, it's still being worked on).

The question is how will we get out of there, what are the effects of this double life on the reality we know today, and what is the role of the digital people and marketing managers during the transition period?

The Metaverse - Internet revolution or natural evolution? (Photo: Unsplash)

When you say 'Metaverse' what do you mean?

A quick search on the net will turn up a lot of interpretations and much more scholarly explanations than what I am about to offer, but for the sake of discussion let me offer the following definition:

  • 'Meta' - in Greek 'beyond'/ an external view of the concept that appears after it.

  • 'Vers' - short for universe, meaning universe.

Hence, in the dry explanation, the metaverse is what happens beyond the existing world and therefore there are also those who call it the 'new internet' or the 'great disruptor' because in this act of 'looking' lies an explosive potential to completely change the reality we know today, for better or for worse.



If 20 years ago they talked about the innovation of the Internet in that it is measurable and the news of web2 was the encouragement of surfers' content, then in Metaverse, thanks to capabilities that develop in web3, such as 3D, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, decentralized currencies, NFT, etc., a virtual space was born where we can improve and talk about concepts such as: ownership, connectedness, identity and immersiveness.



The good news, in my humble opinion, lies in the realization of the user experience in this space.

The fact that we can literally walk around the space, meet people, take ownership of our lives and even reinvent ourselves while sharing our sensory system, is what transfers the experience of consuming and creating content to the discourse of a 'new universe'.

The marketing and digital people can really change the direction of the wind

As of today, and maybe I will annoy for a moment those who think differently from me (I promise that in the second paragraph the point will become clear), the high words that are poured out at every expert conference or futuristic articles that write predictions in the field, remain in the position of 'paper absorbs everything', because there is still more uncertainty than success on them Insights can be established as to where this world is really going.



If in the reality we know today, companies make decisions based on a business model and Excel with a profit line, then in the meta world there is really no knowledge on which to base the business forecast, and there is a lot of reliance on what is called 'faith'.



It is not that today's investors or shareholders are not required to give their opinion on the faith and confidence they have in the market in which they invest, that is clear, but that unlike those who enter the meta, they have much more indications to base this belief, and hence for them it is more a matter of trust Than of faith.



My claim, modest but full of pretension (because I think I'm playing too), is that those who tipped the scales and will really be able to move the direction of the wind towards investments in Metaverse are the marketing and digital people.

They will be the ones who will be able to harness the money owners to invest in this area, even without being able to show them an immediate ROI;

They are the ones who have the ability to sell parameters of contribution to humanity, reputation, primacy and positioning even without showing if and when the return on investment will come.



Now, there will be those who will say that I live in Honolulu if I miss that this market is already here 'alive and kicking for over 10 years' and the billiards it rolls a year really do not require belief because the numbers speak for themselves and big.

Others will even show that even Facebook changed the name to META, and what is this if not a crazy reinforcement that the world is really going there and those who are not there will be left behind.



It's all known and true and yet, as of this writing, this metaverse space is still not mainstream.

This big money rolling in meanwhile comes from the gaming, porn and gambling industries, and the point I'm talking about is the entry of the Metaverse into every home, style of the 'smartphone for every child' revolution, only with a VR camera for starters.



When I think about the days of two decades ago in total, when the digital agencies (then they were called 'interactive') invested a lot of resources to convince companies and business owners that they needed a website and the objections were that it was not at all certain that it was going to catch on and what's wrong with newspaper ads, so today's record Quite similar, only the difference is that the turntable on which it rotates runs faster and the questions are from users who are unclear about the motivation to purchase equipment and 'work on it'.



Today, brands like Gucci, Samsung, Coca Cola, NBA, Nike and Adidas are already there, but it's not enough to generate motivation with a common denominator broad enough to motivate us all to purchase accessories and equipment and participate in these experiences in a way that motivates more companies to join, And so expand the use until we can't understand how we managed to live without it until now.

Where will the Metaverse break into the mainstream come from?

It is hard to predict who will eventually open the gate through which the metaverse will begin to seep into the mainstream.

There is a good chance that Facebook will be the one through which the accessibility of the field will be easier, but in the meantime it seems that the bets are centered on the so-called The future of work.

The work environment has always required special attention, but now that, thanks to the corona virus, the hybrid model has entered and all the signs show that it is here to stay, there is no escaping the issue.



Meanwhile, the one who leads the future in this field is Microsoft, with new improvements to Teams that will allow you to create a personal hologram and participate in virtual meetings from anywhere in the world without special equipment.



The reason it seems that salvation will come from here is that, as of today, hybrid work is limited to video meetings, with the almost only customization being the possibility of changing the background or blurring it.

There is a real need to improve this experience and the willingness to adopt the new capabilities will be high if their use is accessible and convenient.

According to the predictions, a collaboration that will sweep away entire populations in a short time will bring the long-awaited breakthrough to the other industries.



Another point that should be taken into account is everything related to the user experience in the metaverse space.

It seems that the large investment in sophisticated graphics has somewhat neglected the onboarding experience and the customer's journey within the space.

This is probably natural in the digital pyramid of needs, since in the struggle between a working technological infrastructure and improving the user experience, it is clear that the latter recedes from the code.

As soon as the space matures and stabilizes with the supporting set of the platform, the balance of power will change and the user experience will make the difference, especially when it will be possible to create personalized journeys and not journeys based on personas, as is the case today.



The world of education, medicine and banking are also beginning to explore significant steps in the new Internet.

It will be intriguing to know if they will enter with trepidation with finger dipping and floats, or will they have enough courage to jump into the water and gamble with a lot of chips to produce innovative and fascinating user experiences?

Revolution or Evolution?

The answer probably depends on the speed of response of business companies to the developing market and, accordingly, to the cooperation of the users.



There is no doubt that in order to be motivated to cooperate, it is required that the value offered in the new space be of sufficient quality, well-made, safe and user-friendly.



In addition, to the extent that the marketing and digital people agree to take the lead in realizing the vision of the fanciful thought I wrote about at the beginning of this text, then we may be able to surpass the second thought from that exact paragraph.



In the end, it's all people, dreams and faith along the way.

So with all due respect to the owners of the companies, the shareholders, the creators, the developers and all those involved in the craft, we, the new endeavors, also have a significant role in the discourse surrounding this movement.



It is important that we share knowledge, get involved in the relevant communities and philosophize together, because as John Lennon said "A dream you dream alone is just a dream. A dream you dream together is reality."




Liron Elder

She is the CEO of Unique UI

  • Marketing and digital

  • developing

Tags

  • Meteors

  • Augmented reality

  • NFT

Source: walla

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