The Current State Of The Metaverse In 2023
Today, the components of the Metaverse are isolated, and it cannot offer an interoperable or interchangeable experience. Tech innovators are working on Web 3.0 that will change the entire vision of the Metaverse with decentralized digital ecosystems. The futuristic landscape shows Metaverse channels that will be interoperable and interchangeable with transferable identities and assets.
Metaverse evolutions in the near future
The Metaverse is soon to drop today’s sci-fi mode switching to futuristic technologies for electrifying virtual interactions. Let us delve deeper to figure out the evolution of the Metaverse in the near future.
Web 3.0
The Metaverse gives access to the virtual world only through VR headsets and Mo-cap gloves. This limitation is soon to be overcome by technological advancements. Voice typing is becoming as outdated in the virtual world as it is in the real world. Where 71% of consumers prefer voice search, voice assistants are gearing up for the digital game. Futuristic voice interactions in the Metaverse seem more natural, efficient, and virtually realistic. Metaverse businesses are moving towards interactive conversational marketing and commerce. Rather than the cold transactions of Web 2.0, Web 3.0 is purpose-built for carrying out value interactive transactions.
Interoperability
Interoperability between Metaverse channels to connect different virtual worlds will bring new possibilities for business growth as a customer-oriented approach. To illustrate: while using your Metaverse channel, if your user wants to order food, they need to first exit, order food, and enter again. To track orders till delivered, they need to exit and enter again and again.
Instead, if there are interoperable Metaverse channels, the user can easily switch from your channel, order food, and return, within seconds. They can easily track orders or get notifications from other channels, without exiting your channel.
Persistence
The efficiency of the Metaverse can be measured by how it reflects and adapts to real-time changes. To illustrate: different users are participating from different places at different times in a single Metaverse channel. The entry or exit of any participant does not make any difference. Other participants can continue their activity without interruption. However, for a Metaverse channel to be persistent, it requires technologically advanced services and applications that are portable, extensible, and dynamically configurable.
Digital Twins
In the world of the Metaverse, people, assets, or organizations can have digital identities, often known as digital twins. Anyone can create a digital twin that can be true, anonymous, or pseudonymous as compared to the real world. In the near future, before entering the real world, businesses will build an organization twin having an environment just like their real business environment. They will also create digital twins of their assets and resources. It’s just like having employees in the Metaverse, who can interact with the users as they would have done face-to-face. This can drastically reduce errors and reworks.
Privacy And Security
Security is paramount when it comes to protecting user data in a decentralized digital world. Many entry points can expose your Metaverse channel to attacks or malicious activities. Strict enforcement mechanisms, data regulation, and governance, as well as setting rules for how a Metaverse channel can change over time, can reduce the disinformation that plagues the Metaverse channel.
Co-Existence Of Multiple Metaverses
Decentralization serves as the foundation of the Web3 ecosystem. Therefore, it would be ironic for one metaverse to control the market. Imagine it as a variety of social media websites. However, such as Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, or TikTok. Users of these programs can take advantage of various use cases. Similar to this, different metaverses can co-exist and each provides different benefits. Likewise, various platforms might provide the necessary tools for business or educational activities. There is great potential for multiple metaverses to coexist.
The Virtual Worlds Powered by AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology made significant strides in 2022. However, programs like DALL-E and ChatGPT garner media attention. Several well-known virtual world programs have prioritized creating UGC experiences. These platforms may be able to realize their goals thanks to AI technology. A PwC article claims that AI can enable the creation of immersive virtual world experiences even by those without technical knowledge.
It will Expand Greatly
The market for the virtual world has been expanding without end. According to the management consulting firm McKinsey and Company, the metaverse economy has the potential to grow to the point where it could have a $5 trillion impact by 2030. The program is currently viewed as being very important in e-commerce. It will now have an impact on online learning, advertising, and gaming.
Metaverse in 2023: Predictions and Trends
The metaverse took off with tops the list of buzzwords in 2022, courtesy of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision announced at the end of 2021. Enthusiasm for the metaverse dwindled towards the end of the year, as illustrated by the Google Trends graph, here:
The number of searches for the term ‘metaverse’ declined sharply in the span of 6 months in 2022 (Source on Google Trends)
Fast forward to January 2023: The metaverse is not taking off the way it was envisaged by Meta, formerly Facebook, which centered its future business model around the metaverse. The initial monthly target of 500,000 active users on Horizon Worlds – Meta’s metaverse platform – was reduced to 280,000 users. Currently, there are fewer than 200,000 active users per month. Some of Horizon’s virtual spaces have never been visited.
Leading Companies’ Vision Of The Metaverse
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the metaverse ‘a persistent, synchronous environment where we can be together’. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described it as ‘a virtual world that is shared by a lot of people. It has real design. It has a real economy. You have a real avatar. That avatar belongs to you and is you. It could be a photoreal avatar of you, or a character.’ Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney characterised it as ‘a kind of online playground where users could join friends to play a multiplayer game like Epic’s Fortnite one moment, watch a movie via Netflix the next.’ For Roblox, the metaverse is ‘a platform for immersive co-experiences, where people can come together within millions of 3D experiences to learn, work, play, create, and socialise.’ For Microsoft, the metaverse is a convergence of physical and digital worlds.
Geopolitics And Trends
The global metaverse market was valued at US$40 billion in 2021 and is estimated to surpass around US$1,607.12 billion by 2030. Another report by McKinsey & Company (‘Value Creation in the Metaverse’) stated investment in the metaverse so far in 2022 (US$120 billion) has already more than doubled the total investment for 2021.
The same reports estimate the value of the market by 2030 to surpass US$5 trillion. Furthermore, the report predicts the e-commerce industry is likely to benefit the most, with an estimated market impact of somewhere between US$2 trillion and US$2.6 trillion by 2030, followed by the academic virtual learning market (US$180 billion to US$270 billion), advertising (US$144 billion to US$206 billion) and gaming (US$108 billion to US$125 billion).
Final Thoughts
According to a survey conducted by Ipsos for the World Economic Forum (WEF), enthusiasm for the metaverse and extended reality is highest in developing countries, while in developed (countries) not so much. Turkey was the country most familiar with the Metaverse at 86%, followed by India (80%), China (73%), and the higher-income country of South Korea (71%). At the same time, familiarity with (the metaverse) is lowest in Poland (27%), France (28%), Belgium (30%), and Germany (30%). So, it would be fair to say that the Metaverse definition and future are still very much in the air, but it sure has vast potential.
