Meta-Verse
We have mentioned that a number of Chinese exchanges have an open platform where investors can directly ask listed companies questions about a wide range of topics. Most questions are somewhat specific and refer to statements the company has made, statements competitors have made, or in some cases ‘suggestions’ as to how the company might do better or make changes. Not all company’s respond and in many cases responses are boilerplate and give no answer to the question, but while slogging through many irrelevant or downright ridiculous Q&A sessions, occasionally we come across something significant or important to a company or an industry. In most cases it is the former, but the type of questions asked, especially over a relatively short period of time can also be revealing and we focus on such a question here.
If we had to typify the question it would be, “How will your company participate in the meta-universe?” Originally this threw us in that it was difficult to understand how the concept of multiple universes existing in time but in different planes would have anything to do with a panel manufacturer or hardware producer, but we were thinking like physicists or science fiction writers, when the answer was far more simple; sort of. The meta-universe is a concept that is an outgrowth of what we call AR (Augmented Reality) where you wear a pair of AR glasses from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep. Said glasses provide information on just about everything and provide a visual overlay on top of whatever you happen to be looking at.
Purveyors of this concept liken it to being connected to the internet 24/7, allowing you to point to an object and pull up scads of information about it without having to connect or use a browser, so looking up at the sky could open up a local forecast or pointing at an item in a store window could bring up item and price information and even allow you to buy it without entering the store. Sounds cool, although a bit like walking down a street covered with neon signs, but it doesn’t stop there.
The meta-universe concept goes further, especially if you ask those involved in the more immersive VR (Virtual Reality) space, with the creation of a multitude of meta-verses that are not specific to a game or application, but are shared by the global population. Some of these universes might be specific or dedicated to a particular theme, while others might be more general but perhaps less stressful than today’s reality, but they are all constantly evolving and exist in real-time. While these idealized universes might seem like playgrounds for those with free time or those looking to de-stress, there is one underlying commonality to all, and that is everything in any meta-verse is digital, including and especially money, so while it might be wonderful to stroll down a street made of rainbows and purchase a unicorn that you can ride every time you visit that world, someone is checking to make sure you have enough digital currency to purchase the item, and someone else is logging where you were, what you bought, how long it took you to make the purchase, and hundreds of other metrics about you that they will either use to target advertising in that meta-verse or sell to some other organization that will use it for something else.
There are many supporters of the meta-verse concept, and here we are not speaking about scientists but companies. Those that produce imagery for animation and gaming would certainly have a big stake in such a new reality, but as we noted, underlying all of this shiny and futuristic technology is the same old motivation, selling stuff, and finding more ways to grab the attention of consumers. Vendors will of course eventually latch on to any idea that they think will help them sell more units, but who would really want consumers to have access to a multitude of shred environments? Social media companies. What could be better than collecting information about every person, the universes they visit, the one’s they like the best, and what they do when in those universes. Such data could be worth infinitely more than what you posted on Instagram (FB) last Tuesday, and since those meta-universes (univeri?) will likely be maintained by a consortium of massive server farms owned by companies like Amazon (AMZN), Facebook (FB), Tencent (700.HK), and Sina (SINA), everybody in the social media world will be happy campers.
More interesting however is how such a global meta-universe environment will affect traditional social media. As pressure continues to build about the emotional consequences of social media and its goal of keeping users attached, an alternative such as shared meta-verses will draw users away from smartphones and more toward AR/VR. If this eventually slows the growth of traditional social media, it will give those companies some respite from the scrutiny that is developing, while they shift their focus to the developing a meta-universe world, where they can say ‘we are all working together to create a more positive social environment’. Of course we are likely overly paranoid about such a scenario, but that lack of paranoia has led to a society that wants information only if it agrees with what they think and what could be more enticing than spending much of your day in a world that was developed and maintained for folks with a similar mind-set? Most shared environment multi-player games are addictive, just think of how much more addictive a shared environment could be if it were fully immersive?
If we had to typify the question it would be, “How will your company participate in the meta-universe?” Originally this threw us in that it was difficult to understand how the concept of multiple universes existing in time but in different planes would have anything to do with a panel manufacturer or hardware producer, but we were thinking like physicists or science fiction writers, when the answer was far more simple; sort of. The meta-universe is a concept that is an outgrowth of what we call AR (Augmented Reality) where you wear a pair of AR glasses from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep. Said glasses provide information on just about everything and provide a visual overlay on top of whatever you happen to be looking at.
Purveyors of this concept liken it to being connected to the internet 24/7, allowing you to point to an object and pull up scads of information about it without having to connect or use a browser, so looking up at the sky could open up a local forecast or pointing at an item in a store window could bring up item and price information and even allow you to buy it without entering the store. Sounds cool, although a bit like walking down a street covered with neon signs, but it doesn’t stop there.
The meta-universe concept goes further, especially if you ask those involved in the more immersive VR (Virtual Reality) space, with the creation of a multitude of meta-verses that are not specific to a game or application, but are shared by the global population. Some of these universes might be specific or dedicated to a particular theme, while others might be more general but perhaps less stressful than today’s reality, but they are all constantly evolving and exist in real-time. While these idealized universes might seem like playgrounds for those with free time or those looking to de-stress, there is one underlying commonality to all, and that is everything in any meta-verse is digital, including and especially money, so while it might be wonderful to stroll down a street made of rainbows and purchase a unicorn that you can ride every time you visit that world, someone is checking to make sure you have enough digital currency to purchase the item, and someone else is logging where you were, what you bought, how long it took you to make the purchase, and hundreds of other metrics about you that they will either use to target advertising in that meta-verse or sell to some other organization that will use it for something else.
There are many supporters of the meta-verse concept, and here we are not speaking about scientists but companies. Those that produce imagery for animation and gaming would certainly have a big stake in such a new reality, but as we noted, underlying all of this shiny and futuristic technology is the same old motivation, selling stuff, and finding more ways to grab the attention of consumers. Vendors will of course eventually latch on to any idea that they think will help them sell more units, but who would really want consumers to have access to a multitude of shred environments? Social media companies. What could be better than collecting information about every person, the universes they visit, the one’s they like the best, and what they do when in those universes. Such data could be worth infinitely more than what you posted on Instagram (FB) last Tuesday, and since those meta-universes (univeri?) will likely be maintained by a consortium of massive server farms owned by companies like Amazon (AMZN), Facebook (FB), Tencent (700.HK), and Sina (SINA), everybody in the social media world will be happy campers.
More interesting however is how such a global meta-universe environment will affect traditional social media. As pressure continues to build about the emotional consequences of social media and its goal of keeping users attached, an alternative such as shared meta-verses will draw users away from smartphones and more toward AR/VR. If this eventually slows the growth of traditional social media, it will give those companies some respite from the scrutiny that is developing, while they shift their focus to the developing a meta-universe world, where they can say ‘we are all working together to create a more positive social environment’. Of course we are likely overly paranoid about such a scenario, but that lack of paranoia has led to a society that wants information only if it agrees with what they think and what could be more enticing than spending much of your day in a world that was developed and maintained for folks with a similar mind-set? Most shared environment multi-player games are addictive, just think of how much more addictive a shared environment could be if it were fully immersive?
Scene from the Matrix - Source: Warner Bros.
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