2022 Metaverse Marketing Myth

The metaverse can be generally understood as a virtual world parallel to the real world. Everything that people can do in reality can be realized in the metaverse. Just like in the real world, brands, media, platforms, institutions, and individuals all hope to find a foothold in the metaverse era.

The commercialization of the Metaverse has become the hottest hot search topic in the past year. So, is it just a new round of marketing buzzword, or the beginning of real business innovation? Will it be a big revolution or a big bubble? Is it marketing involution or getting twice the result with half the effort?

Key points of this article

• The self in the real world has too many desires, helplessness that cannot be achieved, and the subconscious self that cannot be released. But in the virtual world, there can be more clones of the true self. The scenes are virtual, but they are the presentation of the truest self, enjoying a surreal parallel world. This is the world of the metaverse.
• The concept of the metaverse is still being enriched and evolved! However, the Metaverse ≠ video games; the Metaverse ≠ AR/VR/XR; the Metaverse ≠ virtual world
• The four major characteristics that determine the metaverse are: 1. The metaverse must span the physical world and the virtual world; 2. Form a fully mature economy; 3. Provide unprecedented interactivity; 4. Will be operated in a decentralized manner by many different participants, rather than belonging to a single company.
• The metaverse is not just a collection of technologies, but a closed business loop covering technologies, business models, application scenarios, and transaction operation mechanisms.
• The keyword associated with the Metaverse is immersion. For advertising, the more direct the user experience is, the more deeply the brand can connect with the audience.
• Consumers are no longer passive observers; they are part of a metaverse created by brands and can explore and interact with the environment at will, which means that consumers are active participants in their brand experience.
• The commercialization of the Metaverse has become an unlimited opportunity for new growth in digital intelligence. The three key factors that determine the commercial innovation of the Metaverse are: technology, organizational structure, and business model.

This article systematically sorts out the most comprehensive knowledge management system of the Metaverse, which is divided into the following parts

1. Origin and evolution of the metaverse
2. Metaverse definition: users define their own rich metaverse
3. The key to commercial innovation of the Metaverse
4. Eight innovative practices in the commercialization of Metaverse
5. Pain points and puzzles of the Metaverse

Origin and evolution

The parallel world of the true self in the metaverse

The metaverse began with the 1992 foreign science fiction work "Snow Crash", which I believe everyone is already familiar with. Metaverse , in which Meta means "transcendence" and "meta", and verse means " universe ".

People can have their own virtual avatars in the "Metaverse", and this virtual world is called the "metaverse". An example that can be used to understand this is the movie Avatar. The virtual people and life scenes in "Avatar" are actually closely related to the metaverse.

In 2003, a game called "Second PFE" was released, which in a sense can be said to be the first metaverse game. In theory, it partially liberates us from the dilemmas we face in the real world. How do you understand this sentence? The most painful thing for us in the real world is that we cannot adjust our identity quickly, but in the virtual world, we can achieve this by having our own avatar, so "Second PFE" gives us the possibility of living a new life.

In other words, the self in the real world has too many desires, helplessness that cannot be achieved, and the subconscious self that cannot be released, while in the virtual world, there can be more clones of the true self. The scenes are virtual, but they are the presentation of the truest self, enjoying a surreal parallel world. This is the world of the metaverse.

The emergence of great events is often accompanied by the right time, place and people, and the same is true for the heat of the metaverse. The timing is right. 2020 marks the beginning of the post-epidemic era, and people have become accustomed to spending more time in the online world.

The continuous maturity of 5G, XR, AR, VR, NFT, blockchain & helpp;& helpp;technology and infrastructure have allowed the metaverse to move from virtuality to reality and from the future to the present.

Renhe. At the end of 2020, Ma Huateng said that the full-scale Internet is the next battle that Tencent must win; in March 2021, Roblox, known as the first stock in the Metaverse, was officially listed in New York, USA; in July 2021, Zuckerberg announced that he would transform Facebook into a Metaverse company in the next five years. In October, Facebook announced that it would change its name to " Meta "; shortly afterwards, Microsoft officially announced its entry into the Metaverse. In August, ByteDance spent $1.5 billion to acquire VR software and hardware company Pixsoul; it is expected that Apple's first VR/AR glasses will be released in 2022. These news are constantly heating up and detonating the market&helpp;&helpp;

Metaverse definition

Users define their own rich metaverse

The concept of the metaverse is still being enriched and evolved! The Metaverse is an evolving concept, and its definition is constantly being enriched by users themselves. But one thing is for sure:

Metaverse ≠ video games (connected to reality, with economic system, avatar system, decentralized authentication system)

Metaverse ≠ AR/VR/XR (will have somatosensory devices, brain-computer interfaces, simulated robots, virtual digital humans)

Metaverse ≠ virtual world (it is virtual world x real world, it is a seamless transformation of virtual and real worlds, achieving symbiosis and integration)

While seeking to commercialize the metaverse, we must first understand the definition and connotation of the metaverse.

The Metaverse is social: a place where users can socialize, meet new friends, strengthen existing relationships, and create new communities. The Metaverse contains eight elements:

Persistence: The Metaverse will always exist whether the user is online or not.

Responsiveness: Virtual environments and metaverse inhabitants react to user actions in real time.

Interoperability: Experiences, assets and identities will be transferred between different platforms without relying on any one platform.

Creativity: It’s a catalyst for creativity and inspiration, where people actively engage with content rather than passively consume it.

Infinity: There is no limit to the number of users, experiences, or worlds.

Everydayness: Seamlessly connects our daily lives and activities.

Decentralization: Ownership in the metaverse belongs to the users.

Completely user-defined: How users live, create, and connect can shape the Metaverse.

The metaverse is structured on seven levels:

1. Experience; 2. Discovery; 3. Creator Economy; 4. Spatial Computing; 5. Decentralization; 6. Brain-Computer Interaction; 7. Infrastructure

Four major characteristics that determine the metaverse:

1. The Metaverse must span the physical and virtual worlds

2. Form a fully mature economy

3. Provide unprecedented interactivity

4. It will be operated in a decentralized manner by many different participants rather than being owned by a single company.

Four major technical pillars for building the Metaverse: BAND (Blockchain, Game, Network, Display)

Blockchain technology provides a decentralized clearing and settlement platform. The emergence of smart contracts, DeFi, and NFTs protects the asset rights and circulation of the metaverse.

Game games provide interactive content for the metaverse and realize traffic aggregation, and Roblox has built a template for this track.

The upgrade of Network5G network ensures the transmission rate of information.

Display technologies such as DisplayVR bring users a more immersive experience.

The Metaverse is not an upgraded version of the game, but a fusion of various technical tracks of "BAND".

Metaverse Ecosystem Map

From the Metaverse Entrance to the Underlying Infrastructure

Metaverse Gateway

Avatar and Identity

User Interface and Immersion

Economic system

Social Connections

Transaction Payment

NFT／Blockchain Development Services

Infrastructure

cloud

Scalability and hosting

Virtualization and Digital Twins

AI

Decentralized Infrastructure

Advertising Technology

Connection and communication

The Metaverse is the successor to the mobile Internet. You can access the Metaverse with all different devices and at different levels of fidelity. This will be a permanent, real-time, and unrestricted environment. There, you don't just watch the content, you are fully involved in it. But the development of the metaverse is still in its early stages.

Three Keys to Metaverse Commercialization Innovation

Technology, organizational structure, business model

The metaverse has become the new normal for the next generation of the Internet. But the Metaverse is not just a collection of technologies, but a closed business loop covering technologies, business models, application scenarios, and transaction operation mechanisms. Therefore, the commercialization of the Metaverse has become an unlimited opportunity for new growth in digital intelligence. The three key factors that determine the commercial innovation of the Metaverse are: technology, organizational structure, and business model.

The metaverse is a new type of Internet application and social form that integrates the virtual and the real, resulting from the integration of multiple new technologies... It closely integrates the virtual world and the real world in terms of economic system, social system, and identity system. Therefore, technology is the first priority and is the basic infrastructure for the commercial innovation of the Metaverse.

According to consumer perception surveys, consumers are now increasingly dependent on technology. More than three-quarters (76%) of global consumers say they rely on technology for their daily lives and activities, a figure that rises to 79% and 80% among Generation Z (16-26) and Millennials (27-41) , respectively.

This dependence is reflected in all aspects of daily life:

64% of global consumers said their social lives depend on technology, 61% said their livelihoods depend on technology, 56% said their creativity depends on technology, 52% said their happiness depends on technology, and 50% said their sense of well-being depends on technology.

Major companies have seized on this opportunity to vigorously develop their technologies to provide consumers with a 360-degree digital experience. Now many large social platforms and technology giants are pinning their hopes on VR and AR technologies to provide users with an immersive experience, so they have established funds and dedicated departments to develop science and technology and enter the metaverse.

In August 2021, TikTok announced the construction of an AR development platform called "TikTok Effect Studio". A report in March this year showed that Facebook now has about 10,000 employees, and almost one-fifth of them are working on VR and AR technologies at Reapty Labs. In May, Snap acquired WaveOptics (responsible for the launch of Snap's new glasses) ; in July, Snap purchased Vertebrae to help brands create 3D versions of their products. The Tensor chip in the Google Pixel 6 series brings a breakthrough AR experience. There are reports that Apple is developing VR headsets that will be available in 2022. In early August, Alibaba launched an auction website for NFTs. At the end of August, ByteDance acquired VR startup Pico and entered the metaverse.

So, let’s explain the technical terms related to the Metaverse. The general term for this technology is extended reality (XR) . XR includes augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) .

Augmented reality (AR) is the overlay of 3D objects onto an environment using a phone or tablet's camera. Because the objects are placed (or fixed) reasonably, there seems to be no sense of incongruity.

There are also some high-end head-mounted AR technologies, such as Microsoft's Hololens and Snap's Spectacles. There are reports that AR glasses from Apple and Huawei are also about to be released.

In contrast, virtual reality (VR) is a purely digital environment that can only be experienced through a closed headset like the Oculus Quest, which helps users explore and interact with the digital world.

Metaverse advertising is driven by technology. But we need to note that technological progress is usually driven by developers, and technology developers are more concerned with what the technology can do rather than whether there is a practical demand or market need for the technology.

Therefore, in addition to technology, traditional media communication methods and marketing methods will be iterated. In the metaverse era, the brand's organizational structure and business model will be reconstructed.

Ten innovative practices in the commercialization of the Metaverse

Subverting traditional marketing and entering a new world of digital marketing

Subversion and reconstruction: The digital world of the Metaverse will have a huge user base in the future. All users will be online at the same time and can communicate directly. This will also subvert traditional marketing and achieve a marketing method that goes beyond reality.

Free creation: In the metaverse, brands can freely provide users with customized experiences, entertainment, inspiration and consumption opportunities, without being restricted by physical conditions and time and space factors, and have greater marketing creativity and flexibility.

Immersive Agility: In this extraordinary virtual-real fusion environment, brands can also respond to changing trends and user needs in real time, effortlessly keep up with the speed of fashion, while giving full play to brand creativity and achieving personalized consumer interaction.

Metaverse Pain Points and Myths

Infinite opportunities and infinite mysteries of four-dimensional space

"This is a battle to control the future." The classic lines in Ready Player One also allude to the battle between technology giants in the real world:

Whoever wins in the metaverse controls the future.

The metaverse subverts everything in reality and allows us to see infinite possibilities beyond time and space. Advertising in the metaverse has also changed from the current one-dimensional plane of single output to a four-dimensional space that consumers can feel, participate in, create, and traverse.

The metaverse era has arrived, and brand owners’ metaverse advertising war has begun. How to take the lead and seize the initiative? How to really immerse? How to create a commercial prototype of the Metaverse? Opportunities and pain point myths coexist.

The "ideal country" of the metaverse can grow freely in the digital world, but the boundary between reality and ideal will become increasingly clear. How to change thinking, reconstruct everything in the Metaverse, and innovate everything. Regarding the topic of [Metaverse commercialization is reborn in subversion and reconstruction], please look forward to the next issue of Metaverse Business Weekly for a discussion.