To some, the phrase “everything old is new again” may come to mind when they hear the term “metaverse”. Second Life and Sims could be considered early forms of the metaverse. But is that really accurate?
It would seem there is more to it as Facebook bet the farm on the future of the metaverse with its name change to Meta. And quickly following was Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision with the metaverse as the goal and not gaming.
So, what is really happening with the metaverse and where are things headed?
In this lightning strike, Kieron Allen, host of the My Metaverse Minute channel, dove into this topic to get answers to this question. Acceleration Economy analysts Bob Evans, John Siefert, Aaron Back, and Wayne Sadin joined Kieron to explore the concepts, the cloud battles, governance realities, real-world examples, and investment outlooks.
Highlights
02:30: Kieron Allen — The concept of the metaverse has been around a long time but now it’s truly emerging. It’s the evolution of the Internet, technology, and relationships, and it’s going to play a huge role in culture, business, and everything in between. You’re going to be at the top of the curve, just as we are.
03:35: Bob Evans — In Microsoft’s earnings results, CEO Satya Nadella said they want to help companies digitize people, places, and things so they can automate, simulate, and analyze business processes. Nadella referred to it as ‘the Next Wave of the Internet.’
05:00: Wayne Sadin — Meta/Facebook is saying we’re betting the company on the future. They’re facing significant headwinds, they’re saying we’re going to have a $10 billion loss in this business, we’re going to invest heavily in it and transform everything including the name of the company, in the public eye.
06:25: Aaron Back — Governance is going to be a big thing. It’s still like the wild west. Looking at data privacy, personal privacy, healthcare privacy. There’s an interesting phrase: virtual life is around ambient computing, it’s about you being within the computer, not just accessing it, totally different mindset of how we interact with things. I saw estimates the metaverse could hit $400 billion revenue by 2025, just 3 years away
08:50: John Siefert — WFA is already driving a lot of revenue and productivity in aligning your physical and digital selves in this environment
09:10: Wayne Sadin — My recent article indicated the office birthday party is not the culture we need in the company, we need people to be able to interact as their true selves like you would in person. The metaverse is going to offer tools for people to be more immersive. If I can move around in my virtual company landscape and interact with people in an immersive way, I can build those relationships I had to fly to Barcelona to create in the past. I don’t have to commute.
10:35: Kieron Allen — There’s a career growth opportunity: if people don’t have to be concerned with how they’re perceived physically if it’s just about how they achieve within their roles, metaverse enables that without bias.
12:00: John Siefert — In the past, people talked about transforming business, now thinking in terms of digital twins and supply chains, future revolves around physical plus digital, complete integration to the point of potential singularity over time
13:00: Aaron Back — EXP Realty has 60,000 employees and a virtual landscape they’ve used for years to interact with employees…saving on flights, commutes.
14:25: Bob Evans — The cloud industry started out telling customers you can have the cloud any way you want it, as long as it’s this way. Now it’s going to accelerate the offerings of the big cloud providers, it’s going to be an incredibly powerful incentive for them to do more, innovate more, get closer to customers
15:45: Wayne Sadin — Investment in the metaverse is going to generate huge investments in augmented reality, distributed and decentralized security, and identity management. The rate of investment in this new technology is going to have many spinoffs in more internet, traditional tech and we’re all going to benefit from those investments being made by tech giants
18:35: Kieron Allen — The first battle is going to be over who owns the metaverse, who owns the land.
