Is the “Metaverse” really a scam? Why do “capital” and ordinary people have different views?

The "Metaverse" has been very popular recently, especially after Facebook changed its name to Meta and bet on the Metaverse, it has been pushed to the forefront. The strange thing is that while the capital is particularly chasing after the "Metaverse", as ordinary people, most of us think it is a scam, that the capital is hyping the concept and harvesting leeks.

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Internet giants have made strategic arrangements for the "Metaverse", but most people think it is a scam. Why does such a strange phenomenon occur? Is the Metaverse really a scam? How does it affect the lives of ordinary people?

Metaverse: A Carnival of Capital

In addition to Facebook, giants such as Google, Amazon, and Disney have all made strategic plans for the Metaverse. Tencent, China's leading gaming company, has also keenly sensed the new opportunities brought by the Metaverse. At the end of 2020, Ma Huateng proposed the concept of "Full Authentic Internet", claiming that it can go from real to virtual, helping users achieve a more realistic experience.

The term "metaverse" came into people's attention after the game company Roblox was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Roblox is the first company in the world to include the concept of metaverse in its prospectus and is known as the "first stock in the metaverse."

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Not long after, gaming giant Epic Games announced that it had received $1 billion in investment to build the metaverse.

The foreign market is booming, and the domestic market is not far behind.

In March this year, MetaApp, a mobile sandbox platform developer, announced the completion of a US$100 million Series C financing round. The company claimed to create a metaverse world for all ages.

Almost at the same time, game engine developer Code Qiankun received a strategic investment of nearly 100 million yuan from ByteDance, and cloud gaming technology service provider Haima Cloud completed a new round of financing of 280 million yuan.

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The concept of the Metaverse is booming, and the sector is also hot. As of the close of November 11, the Oriental Fortune Metaverse Concept Index rose by 2.96%, and the increase in one month exceeded 30%. In terms of individual stocks, stocks related to the Metaverse concept have risen to varying degrees. Zhongqingbao's stock price rose by more than 380%, and Jiachuang Video, Guoguang Electric and other stocks had previously hit the daily limit for three consecutive trading days.

Old leeks hold their pockets tight

The thriving metaverse has aroused the vigilance of old investors, and the scene of the VR concept hype in 2015 is still vivid in their minds.

In 2015, Baofeng Group’s stock price rose by 29 consecutive daily limits thanks to the VR concept, and the stock prices of VR-related companies also rose. However, in less than two years, many VR concept listed companies have plummeted one after another. Thanks to the VR concept, Yishang Display’s stock price once reached 170.54 yuan, but now it has fallen to 23.61 yuan.

Some strange phenomena have also occurred in stocks related to the metaverse concept. Jiachuang Video's revenue and net profit attributable to shareholders in the first three quarters of 2021 both declined year-on-year, by 5.46% and 151.06% respectively. However, it hit three daily limit increases from November 3 to 5. Previously, the company stated on the Interactive Yi platform that "the VR business carried out by the company involves one of the core technical foundations of the metaverse concept."

Returning to the technology itself, the Metaverse includes chips, network communications, virtual reality, game technology (engine, code, multimedia resources), AI artificial intelligence and other technologies. To support the operation of the huge Metaverse, it is necessary to have extremely powerful computing power and algorithms.

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Although the development of cloud computing, 5G technology, and artificial intelligence makes the Metaverse no longer as unattainable as before, as Nick Clegg, head of global affairs at Facebook, said: "It may take at least 15 years for the Metaverse to bear fruit." With current technology, the Metaverse is impossible to achieve.

It seems that the "metaverse" is really a scam.

A rational view of the metaverse

Technology is not guilty, what is guilty is the hype of concepts. Just like artificial intelligence technology, we are constantly developing artificial intelligence technology, hoping that in the future, it can achieve L5 level autonomous driving, and hope that it can achieve full automation of production and serve mankind. However, with the current level of human technology, it is still impossible to achieve strong artificial intelligence.

The same is true for the Metaverse, which has drawn a blueprint for the future. In the future, people will be able to live in a virtual world with a new identity anytime and anywhere. It has its own economic system and civilization, and provides diversified and differentiated content.

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However, with the current level of technology, what we can do is very limited. The currently feasible solution is that major Internet giants, based on their own product matrix, continue to deepen and improve product functions, use the point to lead the whole, and continuously accumulate technology to prepare for the true realization of the metaverse.