On 16 December 2022, there was an amazing event in Metaverse. Notorious B.I.G aka Biggie Smalls- one of the greatest American rappers who was shot in 1997- was performing a concert on Meta’s Horizon World. Actually, it wasn’t him but his avatar created for the show. He seemed very much alive and fans have the possibility to see their favorite rapper one more time at a live event. What came to my mind after this musical entertainment is that it might bring to life many famous artists. It would give their admirers a new amazing way to interact with their favorite performers. I consider it a new way to experience and discover music. But here comes a question, is making money on dead artists ethical? The idea of transmitting music in this way is beautiful, it gives life to artists and makes their creativity immortal. But on the other hand, no one should make a profit out of it. What do you think about it? You can watch how the concert looked like here: https://fb.watch/hs_xLy3K1X/.
Do you hate going outside? Are you an introvert who prefers to avoid human contact? Do you wish to stay at home but miss the experience of doing groceries? Worry not because Walmart is on it.
Walmart VR shopping experience
Walmart, Inc., was founded in 1962 and focused its early growth in rural areas, avoiding direct competition with retail giants such as Sears and Kmart. Walmart became one of the largest grocers in the United States within a decade of opening the combination of grocery and merchandise Supercenters. Emphasizing customer attention by implementing direct mail advertising, low-cost imports, and focusing on the efficiency of its distribution networks through regional warehousing allowed Walmart to become the largest retailer in the United States in 1990. Walmart’s revenues doubled by 1995 after the owner’s passing, and by 1999 the company had become the largest private employer in the world, as well as the largest corporation in the world.
The company’s development has reached its peak, and now to stay at the top, they are trying to come up with more innovative and shocking customer-gaining solutions. While researching this topic, I have met with a question: “Walmart is joining the metaverse. Are we ready?” – Are we ready for what? Does Walmart’s marketing team think that people do groceries for fun? Is this really where this world is headed? It’s not progress; it’s regress. All this makes me wonder what the Walmart shopper wants to buy in a virtual world anyway?
According to William White, Walmart’s marketing chief, the company will use Roblox as a testing ground as it considers other moves in the metaverse. The experiences, according to him, were created with the next generation of consumers in mind, notably Gen Z, who is widely seen as being between the ages of 25 and under. White stated that the business hopes to gain knowledge from the collaboration.
Walmart Land on Roblox
Currently, Walmart Land and Walmart’s Universe of Play are the two primary game experiences available on the Roblox platform. The store is also experimenting with new methods of customer contact, especially in light of how the pandemic has altered consumer purchasing patterns and increased their use of social media, apps, and gaming websites. Walmart is attempting to bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds. A music festival featuring Madison Beer, Kane Brown, and Yungblud will perform during the virtual event “Electric Fest” in October on Walmart Land; a ton of different games and a shop of virtual goods, or “verch,” that mirrors what customers could find in Walmart’s physical stores and on its website are all part of the retail giant’s first excursion into the virtual world. The big-box store has also held live events that were shoppable and streamed on TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. Additionally, it has launched a service on Pinterest that uses augmented reality to let customers envision how furniture or other decors might appear in their homes.
For the time being, Walmart won’t profit from its immersive experiences. Instead, players may use tokens and other prizes from Roblox to purchase virtual goods. National brands, such as Skullcandy headphones and the toy company L.O.L. Surprise!, were integrated into the experiences based on demand from the younger gaming demographic of Roblox. However, White suggested that in the future, Walmart may profit from it by charging a brand for inclusion or by attempting to convert users’ virtual experiences into in-person or online shop visits.
Walmart Land has a virtual changing room featuring clothing from its exclusive fashion lines, such as Free Assembly, as well as an obstacle course made up of gigantic goods from the retailer’s Gen Z-focused cosmetic brands, such as Bubble skin care products and Uoma by Sharon C makeup.
During the Covid epidemic, Roblox attracted a lot of new users and made its stock market debut. The gaming platform reportedly saw an increase in daily active players from 32.6 million in 2020 to over 52 million. Although the firm claims it is drawing users of all ages, traditionally, it has attracted more young children and teenagers. Although Roblox has a market cap of roughly $21.2 billion, its shares have fallen by about 66% so far this year.
We constantly risk becoming lost in the future race, especially when the newest technological revolution is powering it. We can get caught up in designing these next-generation products and experiences, as we have all seen before, only to find that no one actually wants them. It appears that no one wants to be left behind – but are we really clear about where we are going with the metaverse?
Thomas Edison. Nikola Tesla. The Wright Brothers. Alexander Graham Bell.
What do all these visionaries have in common?
Well, they all changed the course of humanity and our civilization’s technological development.
From inventing the lightbulb (Edison) to the creation of the telephone (Bell), they were undoubtedly figures that played key roles in getting to where we, as humans, have come so far.
In 1903, just nine weeks before the first manned flight, The New York Times stated that it would take at least a million years for humanity to create a functional airplane.[2]A million years.
And how are they relevant to Mark Zuckerberg?
As you might have read, the Meta (formerly known as Facebook) founder has come into great criticism recently over his vision of the Metaverse. With a 2021 loss of 10 billion dollars[3] and being over 300 000 users short of Meta’s year-end goal,[4] the Metaverse has already been branded as a massive flop by major media outlets.
The major feedback points were that:
The users’ avatars were ‘soulless’ and had no legs;
The virtual world felt empty and lonely.
The issue doesn’t seem to be only existent in Meta’s creation, as another metaverse, Decentraland (valued at over 1.1 billion USD[5]), reportedly had only 38 daily active users.[6]
Mark Zuckerberg showcasing his Metaverse avatar Source: https://qz.com/2081426/facebooks-meta-company-wants-control-of-the-metaverse
The metaverse was supposed to serve as an “alternate reality” to our real world, with limitless possibilities. In fact, the idea seemed quite appealing, as you could travel to any place in the virtual world instantly. Of course, there are also dystopian visions of a Matrix-like scenario, where, in the distant future, a person would be constantly hooked up to a headset and haptic pads that would produce a fully immersive experience, essentially replacing actual reality.
But what is actually going on in the Metaverse?
For now, the main purpose of this virtual world seems to be entertainment, with virtual concerts making headlines.[7] Other such virtual experiences include art exhibitions, movie showings and gambling.
As crazy as it may seem, there are going to be Subway franchises in the Metaverse – the company has filed for a trademark earlier this year.[8] So, worry not, you’ll be able to order a sandwich that you cannot actually eat soon enough.
While some of the ideas (such as virtual food and drinks) are ridiculous, if implemented properly, a virtual world could serve well for business and educational ventures. It could replace Zoom for virtual conferences and add at least a touch of reality to remote calls and work.
Zuckerberg seems confident enough in his strives to popularize the Metaverse and there is no sign of him backing down anytime soon. For one, as he recently stated on his Joe Rogan Experience appearance, he wants VR to ‘eat TV’, so that people could spend time socializing inside of his creation instead of sitting in front of a TV.[9]
Mark Zuckerberg Source: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/12/mark-zuckerberg-surfing-again-electric-board-sunscreen
So where is this alternate reality headed? It is hard to say for sure, but it doesn’t seem to be replacing actual life anytime soon. There is major money to be made in the technology, and perhaps we could see a Metaverse boom after we come out of the upcoming recession.
In the distant future, we might hold business meetings virtually by default. It is not impossible that we are headed into a Matrix-like world. Or maybe, in 50 years’ time, we might remember the Metaverse as the biggest flop in tech history.
If the Meta founder fulfills his ambitions, perhaps a future Kozminski student will start his October 2053 tech blog entry with the words:
Thomas Edison. Nikola Tesla. The Wright Brothers. Alexander Graham Bell. Mark Zuckerberg.
Where do you think is the Metaverse headed? Would you prefer to hold your classes and business meetings in such a virtual world, or do you think that the venture is going to fail miserably? Feel free to reply in the comments.
The virtual reality concept was created in the mid-1950s with a device called sensorama. Since then VR became one of the technologies with the highest potential growth. Most forecasts believe that the Metaverse by the end of the decade will be worth between 6-13 trillion dollars. No wonder tech giants are following this trend. The most interesting usage of this technology is in the Metaverse.
Sensorama
What the Metaverse is?
It is a concept developed by Neal Stephenson in his novel “Snow Crash” 1992. Matthew Ball defines it as “A massively-scaled and interoperable network of real-time-rendered 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence while supporting the continuity of data.” But what does it mean? It is a virtual world with the ability to link independently-operated simulations and give us cyberspace where everyone is coexisting.
How do we use VR/AR technology nowadays?
The biggest part of the market uses this technology for entertainment purposes- mostly video games, but this technology has much more to offer. Surgeons are trained using simulations of complex operations and this method is more efficient than traditional one- scientists from Harvard University have done the research and the result of it showed that surgeons trained in VR technology had a 230% growth in efficiency. U.S and British militaries are using Unreal Engine for simulation training of active combat. Even cities are being designed with graphics-based computing. This technology is opening a huge amount of opportunities and I am curious about what it will look like in the next ten years.
The idea of creating metaverse, by Zuckerberg’s company, was officially announced almost a year ago. From that moment thousands of people have been working in that project and billions of dollars have been spent. It is a huge futuristic enterprise that has a lot of potential.
However, not everything is going as planned. With around 20,000 thousands of engineers working on that project Meta has spent hundreds thousands of dollars but until now the outcome of the enterprise wasn’t as positively received as Zuckerberg had planned. The current appearance of the project and decreasing number of Facebook’s users don’t speak well about Mark’s idea.
Nevertheless, Mark and his board haven’t stopped believing. Just a few days ago Financial Times published an article in which it is said that Zuckerberg and his team had used more than one hundred high-resolutions cameras to create a brand-new avatar of Meta’s CEO. I guess they did it due to massive criticism from the public to prove them wrong. However, I cannot imagine the dissemination of this idea on a larger scale. Simply the project still needs improvements.
How about you? Do you think that Mark Zuckerberg and his company have any chance of succeeding? Or it’s gonna be a huge flop which will made Meta to back out of that futuristic idea?
A new report from Datadog company – the company focuses on service observability for clod-scale applications, while providing monitoring of servers, databases, tools, and services through SaaS-based data analytics platform, shows serverless compting might be going into the mainstream with over half of the organizations using serverless solutions from three major clods – Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.
“Serverless represents the ideal state of cloud computing, where you only use exactly what resources you need and no more. That’s because the cloud provider delivers only those resources when a specific event happens and shuts it down when the event is over. It’s not a lack of servers, so much as not having to deploy the servers because the provider handles that for you in an automated fashion.”
Why does it matter? Taking it into practical perspective it can and most probably will, change the way how we do our daily things via common electronics. With 5G or even future 6G internet, every desktop or mobile phone would transfer all the computing power to the cloud, which would imply that all the processing power inside, is not so much needed anymore. It only leaves a creative mind to wonder, what are the possibilities and upcoming innovations, where devices are not so reliant on what is inside, but rather on what they are surrounded with. Of course, it also implies the native talk about metaverses tough what fascinates me, even more, is how serverless computing can be used for devices to implement AR/VR into our daily life with progressing internet speed technology.
Metaverse has and will in the future influence many aspects of our lives. Focusing on fashion retail and fashion shows we are beginning to witness it.
We have recently become familiar with the term metaverse – now what does it mean?
The term metaverse refers to an interactive, simulated, and virtual space. Hypothetically speaking any open-world game in which users can interact with each other and are free from themselves physically is considered a metaverse. Examples include Sandbox, Second life, AXE infinity, Decentraland, and many more.
Coming back to the fashion aspect and especially talking about the Metaverse Fashion Week that premiered on 24th to 27th March this year showcased phenomenal remakes of iconic dresses and pieces of famous brands. Hosted by Decentraland, this four-day blockchain-based experience enlisted popular brands such as Hugo, Dolce & Gabbana, and Estée Lauder.
The event was hyped but the reactions were mixed but mostly positive, participants commented about glitches such as server overload issues with black screens of code and basic graphics and even compared them to previous digital fashion shows such as Gucci Roblox Garden in 2021. Specialists in the field of digital fashion such as Kerry Murphy who created the first NFT dress ever sold said that “The future looks like the past,” and while the user experience is “from the ’90s”, development is speeding up and will be better next year. Giovanna Graziosi Casimiro, the head of MVFW also commented that as browsers become more powerful the quality will improve and meet the expectations of the fashion community.
Max Vedel, co-founder and creative director at Swipe Back, a metaverse creative agency that has worked with Gucci, Nike, and Swarovski commented that MVFW is a start in digital fashion and has a lot of places for improvement. He also commented that “You don’t just want to recreate real life in the metaverse; you want to be pushing boundaries and going crazy with your designs, show spectacles, and the experience,”. An example of this includes cats walking instead of models on Dolce & Gabbana catwalk.
Scenes from the Decentraland’s MVfW (Photo Credit: WWD)
For me, the cherry on the top of this event was the in-avatar performance by Grimes. She was dressed in a ‘mystique’ inspired dress by AUROBOROS which is a fashion house with futuristic otherworldly designed dresses.
Nowadays, VR techs are actively developing and in the next article one of such cutting-edge technologies will be described. The Emerge Home system is a breakthrough, which allows you not only to immerse yourself in the world of virtual reality and metaverses but also to feel the inner virtual space with bare hands. It is not just a VR set that allows you to see the 3D objects in the virtual worlds or games, but also to interact with them, to sense their shape, and help the user to get as much VR experience as possible, transporting him or her into the virtual world with just a few clicks.
The Emerge Home system is currently at the development stage, and its VR kit consists of two main tech components and a mobile application.
How does everything work?
The first tech component that helps the user to enlarge his VR experience is a VR headset (Emerge Home Quest 2 app).
The second component is the Emerge Wave-1 desktop device that conveys a physical experience with breakthrough technology. Sculpted ultrasonic waves on the surface of the system create a field in the air up to three feet above the device itself and allow users to interact with virtual objects. Moreover, the system itself is similar in size to a thirteen-inch laptop.
For the final step, the user has to install a dedicated Emerge Home mobile app, which allows him or her to connect the devices, customize the avatar and set a Center environment. Moreover, this application is capable of sending messages, creating rooms, and inviting your friends before gathering in the metaverse.
Based on research conducted by the National Research Group, It can be concluded that more than half of potential customers (78% of respondents) claim that when communicating with people virtually, they lack the opportunity of physical contact, and this cutting-edge VR system can significantly improve the situation.
However, there is a high risk that, in the nearest future, live communication, which is an important factor in human interactions, will be replaced by such kinds of technologies.
Any breakthrough in science is valuable. Some people may find it useful, while others may see it as technology that brings more harm. However, Emerge’s expertise can help the science and progress of virtual reality, and not only facilitate human interaction but also lead to new innovations that follow.
The idea behind Facebook’s Metaverse is brilliant. It truly is. But I find it incredibly difficult to believe hordes of people would buy Facebook’s headsets with a 1080p camera and stereo mic. Personally, I wouldn’t like to meet with people wearing any data harvesters from Facebook on their bodies. By wearing Facebook’s products, you surrender your privacy. Simple as that.
I really don’t want to talk about Zuckerberg’s latest project because I only give him free publicity by doing so. But it’s essential to make my point.
Metaverse is ambitious. In fact, too ambitious. Facebook believes they can build the whole world right away, and to be fair, they are delusional. Let’s assume Metaverse exists for a second, though. The problem of this digital world is three-fold. Firstly, as a developer, you don’t know anything about writing programs that would run on Metaverse. Secondly, the programming language lacks libraries and frameworks to enable developers to create apps efficiently. Thirdly, there’s no user base with devices. Zero. Facebook sold like a dozen oculus sets, but that’s it.
In short, sure, the hype factor is here, and everyone is excited about Metaverse. But still, without any of the above three aspects, Metaverse doesn’t exist outside of Facebook’s marketing team.
On the other side of the “spectrum” are Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Apple is told to release its next “big thing” in the next year. The next big thing will be either a VR or AR headset. No matter which headset Apple will introduce, Apple’s digital world will outgrow Facebook’s Metaverse from day one.
source: The Wall Street Journal
The graph above illustrates the projection of sales of AR glasses in the upcoming three years. As you can see, it’s forecasted that Apple will sell almost five times more units than Facebook will, only in the first year. What’s more, in 2025, Facebook is predicted to be the second smallest player on the market.
The reason Apple will destroy the competition lies in the above three factors that are absolutely essential for creating the digital universe. And Apple, one year before the predicted release of AR glasses, already fulfills 3 out of 3 factors.
Around six years ago, Apple introduced its new programming language – check. In 2017, they released ARKit – a set of APIs, libraries, and frameworks for working with AR objects and AR realties – check. And lastly, Apple has been building a user base since the day iPhone launched (now standing at whopping 900 million active iPhones) – check. And a great majority of the active iPhones can run AR apps.
That gives Apple essentially all there is to dominate the AR market overnight by simply pushing a software update. What’s more, the developer base already knows the process of developing AR apps for iOS.
Now let’s talk about another critical aspect – computing power. To run AR programs, you need enormous computing power. The hardware must run tens of billions of operations every second, fit in a small box, and be highly energy-efficient (meaning how many operations you can make out of a battery charge). And wow, what a surprise! For more than ten years, Apple has been developing precisely these kinds of chips. The ones that are both extremely energy efficient and have unmatched performance. This fact already creates a tremendously significant competitive advantage over Facebook.
Another significant aspect of AR is the number of use cases. With Facebook’s oculus, you can play games, call friends and watch some videos on youtube. I’d say that’s pretty limited. Thus, to survive, Metaverse will need to extend capabilities that will take time to develop. Apple will offer many more, besides the above use cases, such as maps, music, tv, podcasts, and fitness services from the launch day. So, the services that Apple offers are much more wide-ranging than Facebook’s offering.
Closing Thoughts
This relatively long analysis was supposed to show you why Facebook’s Metaverse has no significant future and how their competition will relegate them to the background in the upcoming years. Facebook’s failure will lie in almost every area of creating the digital world, starting with the user base with digital-world-running capabilities, going through chip performance, and ending on limited use cases.
Of course, the subject of the digital world becomes much more complex when we start discussing the effects of living on the internet on the human psyche. For now, though, I wanted to focus only on the technological aspects of this matter.
Since Mark Zuckerberg’s new Meta video, there has been a lot going around on this topic. Metaverse is full of controversies, many people have problems with perceiving actual value in the digital world. For many watching video games still is something new. How about Travis Scott’s massive online concert, which was held in a game called Fortnite? Which was attended by 12 million people. People could view his big 3d model rapping from the stage. Imagine having a model of yourself in the game. Wouldn’t it be fun?
Project Metahero might help you as their goal is to make visions from Steven Spielberg’s movie – Ready Player One possible. How is this going to work?
According to Metahero’s idea, scanning will be done in chambers that measure 2,5 m height and 4,2 m diameter, which will allow 4 people to enter at once. Sixty-four cameras will scrutinize your body once 120 seconds. This means up to 400 scans a day will be possible. The Chamber is built from 16 columns which as their website says “are mobile”. It will allow chambers to move around and let people scan themselves in different places. Metahero plans to distribute 12 of these chambers around the world currently with one already in Doha, Qatar.
How much will you pay for such a digitalization? Around 200 $ in Metahero currency.
What will be possible with your body scan? This we can leave to our creativity.
We could play any game as ourselves, or we could attend an online meeting just as how we look. Maybe we could sell our to other people and let them use it. Maybe we could use different avatars to go on an imaginary date with our favorite actor? Possibilities are endless.
Additionally, there will be a hero app, that will allow its users to track their investments and their hero’s inventory.
Metaheros’ plan is to take one part of metaverse services: scanning. In the same division, you can also find other competitors.
Seems like metaverse is slowly starting to take off with everyone taking their places.
