Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months, you’ve probably heard the term ‘metaverse’ being mentioned rather a lot recently. In October last year, Facebook announced that it was changing its parent company’s name to Meta, with Mark Zuckerberg explaining that the business would increasingly concentrate on developing the metaverse, which he believes represents the next major evolution of the internet. Since then, it seems that almost every technology company has started talking about virtual worlds, digital avatars and the enormous commercial opportunities that supposedly await us.
However, despite all the excitement, I’m not entirely convinced that most people actually understand what the metaverse is supposed to be, or why we should be particularly interested in it. Having spent a reasonable amount of time using virtual reality over the years, I can certainly see the potential for some interesting applications, but I’m struggling to understand why so many people seem convinced that we’re all going to be spending large portions of our lives wandering around virtual environments in the near future.
What Exactly Is the Metaverse?
This is probably the first problem, because there doesn’t seem to be a universally agreed definition of what the metaverse actually is. Broadly speaking, it’s the idea of a persistent virtual environment in which people can interact with one another, participate in activities, purchase digital products and potentially carry out many of the things they currently do through conventional websites and applications.
Rather than simply looking at a website on your computer screen, you might put on a virtual reality headset and find yourself standing inside a virtual shopping centre, where you can examine products, speak to other customers and make purchases. Alternatively, you could attend a concert, meet friends or sit in a virtual office alongside colleagues who are actually working from home.
The idea itself isn’t particularly new. The term ‘metaverse’ originated in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash, while virtual environments such as Second Life have been allowing people to interact through digital avatars for almost twenty years. Anyone who’s played an online game like World of Warcraft will also be familiar with the concept of sharing a persistent virtual environment with thousands of other people.
What’s different now is the amount of money being invested in the technology, particularly by companies such as Meta and Microsoft, which clearly believe that virtual environments could eventually become a major part of how we use the internet.
Why Has Facebook Changed Its Name?
In October 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook’s parent company would become Meta, reflecting his ambition to transform the business from a social media company into what he describes as a ‘metaverse-first’ organisation. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp will continue operating under their existing names, but the company’s long-term strategy will increasingly involve developing virtual and augmented reality technologies.
Meta already owns Oculus, which it acquired in 2014, and its Quest 2 headset has become one of the most accessible ways for consumers to experience virtual reality. The company has also been developing Horizon Worlds, a social virtual reality platform that allows people to meet, explore environments and create their own experiences. Horizon Worlds was opened to adult users in the US and Canada last month, although it isn’t currently available to the general public here in the UK.
It’s certainly an ambitious strategy, particularly when you consider that Meta is effectively betting enormous amounts of money on a technology that most people have never experienced. There’s also the question of whether the rebrand is partly intended to shift attention away from the controversies surrounding Facebook’s existing social media business, although Zuckerberg insists that the decision reflects the company’s longer-term ambitions.
Haven’t We Seen This Before?
Personally, I think one of the most interesting things about the metaverse is how familiar much of it sounds. Virtual reality has been around in various forms for decades, and although the technology has improved enormously, the fundamental concept of entering a computer-generated environment hasn’t really changed.
Second Life attracted considerable attention during the mid-2000s, with businesses opening virtual shops and organisations experimenting with online meetings and events. At the time, there were plenty of predictions that virtual worlds would become an important part of everyday life, but things didn’t quite turn out that way.
There are obviously differences between Second Life and what Meta is proposing, particularly when it comes to virtual reality hardware and the ability to create more immersive experiences. However, I’m not convinced that putting on a headset to visit a virtual shop is necessarily more convenient than simply opening a website and buying something.
That’s not to say there aren’t circumstances where virtual reality can be genuinely useful, particularly for gaming, training and certain types of remote collaboration. I just question whether those applications necessarily translate into a completely new way of using the internet.
What About Other Technology Companies?
Meta certainly isn’t the only company interested in the metaverse. Microsoft announced its Mesh for Teams initiative in November, which aims to introduce virtual avatars and immersive meeting environments into its existing collaboration software. Rather than simply participating in a conventional video meeting, employees could potentially interact with colleagues inside a shared virtual workspace.
This seems like a more practical application to me, particularly following the enormous increase in remote working during the coronavirus pandemic. However, I do wonder whether most employees would actually prefer to attend meetings as animated avatars rather than simply switching on their webcams.
Meanwhile, gaming platforms such as Roblox and Fortnite have already demonstrated that millions of people are perfectly happy spending time in shared virtual environments, although whether these should really be described as metaverses is debatable.
What Does This Mean for Businesses?
From a digital marketing perspective, the potential implications are certainly interesting. If large numbers of people eventually start spending time in virtual environments, businesses will presumably want to advertise to them, sell products and establish some form of presence within those environments.
You could imagine virtual showrooms, interactive product demonstrations and advertising opportunities that go considerably beyond conventional display advertisements. However, there’s also a danger that businesses will start investing money in metaverse projects simply because they’re worried about missing out on the next big thing.
Personally, I’d be cautious about committing significant resources to something that hasn’t yet demonstrated a clear commercial benefit. There are plenty of businesses that would be better off improving their existing websites, ecommerce platforms and digital marketing campaigns before worrying about whether they need a virtual office.
Is the Metaverse Really the Future?
I certainly wouldn’t dismiss the metaverse entirely, particularly given the investment being made by some of the world’s largest technology companies. Virtual reality hardware is becoming more affordable, the experiences are becoming increasingly convincing and there are undoubtedly applications that could become genuinely useful.
However, I think there’s a considerable difference between creating impressive virtual environments and persuading ordinary people that they actually need to use them. Most people are perfectly happy browsing websites, using mobile applications and communicating through existing social media platforms, so the metaverse will need to offer something substantially better if it’s going to replace any of those activities.
My suspicion is that we’ll see virtual reality become increasingly popular for certain activities, particularly gaming and entertainment, while most of the internet continues operating in much the same way it does today.
Perhaps I’ll be proved wrong, and in ten years we’ll all be attending meetings, shopping and socialising through virtual reality headsets. However, until somebody explains why visiting a virtual supermarket is preferable to ordering my shopping through a conventional website, I’ll remain a little sceptical.