{"id":5541,"date":"2023-03-24T21:43:26","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T19:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trends.tuio.ro\/trends\/what-is-the-metaverse-even\/"},"modified":"2023-03-24T21:43:26","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T19:43:26","slug":"what-is-the-metaverse-even","status":"publish","type":"trends-cpt","link":"https:\/\/trends.tuio.ro\/edition\/2024\/trends\/what-is-the-metaverse-even\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Metaverse Even?"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the Metaverse Even? The Metaverse, a virtual reality that aims to bring people together to work, socialize, play, and shop, is the latest buzzword in tech. While companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and Epic Games are investing heavily in the concept, there is much ambiguity around what the metaverse actually is and how it will differ from previous virtual worlds like Second Life. Despite a flurry of skeptical reports, 90% of marketers plan to invest in the metaverse within the next five years. However, marketers should approach this concept with caution, especially as marketing budgets are under close scrutiny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","trend-keywords":[5619,5657,5620,5809,5742,5621,5679,5617,5622,5680],"trend-themes":[],"trend-categories":[5682,5624,5781],"class_list":["post-5541","trends-cpt","type-trends-cpt","status-publish","hentry","trend-keywords-augmented-reality","trend-keywords-e-commerce","trend-keywords-emerging-tech","trend-keywords-facebook","trend-keywords-martech","trend-keywords-metaverse","trend-keywords-social-media","trend-keywords-virtual-influencers","trend-keywords-virtual-reality","trend-keywords-virtual-spaces","trend-categories-digital-platforms","trend-categories-emerging-technology","trend-categories-the-workplace"],"acf":{"report":"Meltwater - 2023 Marketing Trends Guide","long_trend_summary":"What is the Metaverse Even? In October 2021, Facebook announced that it was changing its name to Meta to reflect the company\u2019s new focus on building the \u201cmetaverse.\u201d This generated a lot of excitement, and very soon, a wave of big tech companies and new startups announced their own plans to help create the metaverse. But what exactly is the metaverse? That\u2019s where things start to get a little muddied. The concept of a metaverse has existed in science fiction for a while (notably in works such as Neal Stephenson\u2019s Snow Crash and, later, Ernest Cline\u2019s Ready Player One) and is generally taken to mean a virtual alternative reality where people can spend time away from the real world. Think of it as the Internet, but rather than simply being a web of connected pages, it\u2019s a 3D world you can explore, either via a VR headset or simply through a screen, the same way you would interact with a video game world. A similar idea was briefly popularized following the launch of Second Life in 2003; a virtual world where users could explore, play, hang out with friends, and generally do whatever they wanted, free from the shackles of physical reality. The platform was breathlessly hyped as the next big thing, and big brands rushed to announce that they were among the first to build an office in Second Life, with the expectation that consumers would soon be spending much of their work and leisure time there. It all fizzled out very quickly, and despite retaining a cult following, Second Life never really became the thriving metaverse science fiction had promised. So, how is this new incarnation any different? The problem is that right now, there are several companies (Microsoft is another big player) that are talking a lot about their vision for the metaverse, and claim to be building the technologies to realize that vision, as well as any number of journalists and industry analysts sharing their predictions, but there\u2019s very little in the way of concrete product. The metaverse, ironically, is still very much a virtual concept. And that concept remains somewhat nebulous. To some, the metaverse really is as simple as one big virtual world where we can all come together to work, socialize, play, and shop in an immersive environment; all we need is to strap on a VR headset. If that\u2019s the case, it\u2019s hard to see how it\u2019s likely to succeed where Second Life failed. To others, the metaverse is more than that. Some envisage an entire virtual economy based on Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to prove ownership of digital assets such as avatars, virtual real estate, and other items that only exist electronically within the metaverse. Some have even argued that existing virtual worlds, such as popular games like Roblox and Fortnite, are already part of the metaverse. What the metaverse actually is depends on who you speak to, or, more importantly, who you believe. Much of what\u2019s being described by metaverse believers already exists in some form. Virtual worlds with virtual economies? Look at almost any popular online role-playing game, they\u2019ve been doing exactly that for decades. Likewise, it\u2019s hard to imagine that consumers would choose to put on a VR headset and navigate through a 3D environment to speak with a sales or customer service agent represented as an avatar in a virtual store, instead of a phone call, email, or live chat. And, in all honesty, do any of us really want to attend a Monday morning virtual meeting, rather than a simple Zoom call? If you\u2019re struggling to see where this is all going, you\u2019re not the only one. In the final quarter of 2022, the tech and business press saw a flurry of reports taking a highly skeptical stance on the outlook for the metaverse, particularly in the wake of disappointing Q3 results for Meta. And yet... Maybe the metaverse is just one of those ideas that works better in the pages of a sci-fi novel than it ever can in reality. But with so many companies, including heavyweights like Meta, Microsoft, and Epic Games, investing so much into making it happen, maybe there is something in the idea that just isn\u2019t clear to us quite yet. Marketers are always keen to jump on hot new tech trends, especially during the early stages of the hype cycle, and the metaverse is no different. Marketing Week recently reported that 90% of marketers plan to invest in the metaverse within the next five years. Of course, it\u2019s great to experiment with new marketing concepts, to get ahead of the curve, but at a time when marketing budgets are under close scrutiny, it seems prudent to approach the metaverse with caution.","report_button_title":"Click to access the source report","report_button_url":"https:\/\/www.meltwater.com\/en\/resources\/marketing-trends"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trends.tuio.ro\/edition\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trends-cpt\/5541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trends.tuio.ro\/edition\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trends-cpt"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trends.tuio.ro\/edition\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/trends-cpt"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trends.tuio.ro\/edition\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trends.tuio.ro\/edition\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"trend-keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trends.tuio.ro\/edition\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trend-keywords?post=5541"},{"taxonomy":"trend-themes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trends.tuio.ro\/edition\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trend-themes?post=5541"},{"taxonomy":"trend-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trends.tuio.ro\/edition\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trend-categories?post=5541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}