Metaverse: Let’s just sit at home
Every year new technology comes by and captures the imagination of the people around the world. Be it virtual reality or new applications like WhatsApp or Instagram, the world has never been short of interesting technology coming their way. Another concept that came back in 2020/2021 was Metaverse (though it was coined back in 1992). Metaverse, in simple terms, enables anyone to relive the experiences of a physical place without being present there. One could say that this is like a virtual tour, but it is much more than that. It has gone on to establish itself as a business changing concept that does not seem to be going away soon.
Metaverse enables the users (citizens of the world) to navigate through the world and perform activities with the aid of virtual and augmented reality, virtual reality, social media, digital currency and artificial intelligence. Now, all this may seem fancy, but this is slowly becoming the bread and butter of majority of the individuals. All this has resulted in a scenario where we should just sit at home and do nothing and everything. Yes, everything and anything can be performed in the metaverse. The only requirement is a digital equipment (phone or laptop) and internet access. While metaverse is a groundbreaking concept, who really owns metaverse and who is it for?
Metaverse is owned by nobody and anybody. While some companies like Meta have their own metaverse, majority of them are open source and not owned by anybody. You can create and own your own metaverse as well. That’s the beauty and power of metaverse. While it is meant for everyone to use, the system and network limitations result in a target segment of 1/1+ across the world who have good network access. Metaverse is really shouting out to us to just sit at home. However, does sitting at home and depending on metaverse really address all our daily needs and keep us satisfied?
1. Show me the money: Humans exist to earn money and be able to stay comfortably and live their dreams. They want to purchase assets like a house or a car which appreciates or depreciates over time allowing them to focus on value creation. Metaverse enables wide access to digital assets where one can buy a piece of land, they like on metaverse and sell it at a higher amount to an interested party. Similarly, they can purchase other assets as well using digital currency and generate value just by sitting at home and not really visiting the land or taking a test drive of the car.
2. Get the tourist hat on: Many of us are fascinated by touristy places like Disneyland or the great wall of China and yearn to visit them in our lifetime. With the current situation in the world and multiple travel restrictions, metaverse allows you to visit these places via virtual reality and get a feel of how it is in those locations. You can end up taking your favorite ride in Disneyland just by sitting on your chair and wearing a VR set.
3. Let’s get some business: Businesses rely heavily on advertising (billboards and digital) to drive their sales. Seldom do they realize the impact billboards create as opposed to digital advertising. Imagine, a huge billboard coming your way when you are in the metaverse environment and then you are redirected to a store or an ecommerce website for driving the purchase of the product. That’s what Metaverse enables by allowing businesses to do advertising on huge billboards in the metaverse environment just like you would see when you step out on the road
4. How do I pass my time? Gaming, reading and watching your favorite series are some of the best ways to kill time when you are not interested in working, shopping or doing anything whatsoever. Metaverse is the mecca of games dating back to Pokémon Go which gives users real life experience of playing a game in a physical environment. You can read your favorite book in the silent confines of the library in the metaverse environment and Netflix is just a click away with an experience of a movie theatre.
The pandemic changed a lot of human habits and made them realize that things can be done sitting at home while zooming into your daily meetings. That’s the point where metaverse has cashed in on the human mentality to enable people to not only attend zoom meetings but live in that environment altogether. Only time will tell whether this sustainable, but metaverse is here to stay for the long haul as human habits have changed considerably over 2 years and it will take another drastic event to bring about another change.
