Somebody or someone has rebranded Virtual Reality as “the Metaverse”. Thankfully it sounds way cooler and has a more mainstream appeal. It is becoming clearer that the way with interact with the internet is expanding. What was once visual and screen bound is also becoming auditory. Moreover, the content of the internet is merging with reality in the form of glasses and a spatial information layer. This augmented reality will blend our reality with data. Virtual reality or full immersion of sight and sound is developing at a rapid rate and will go mainstream.
The monetisation of the metaverse is underway, riding on the back of NFT market developments. Owning digital assets is a hot topic right now. Most investment in this space, in these early days will be entirely speculative. Markets will emerge and platforms will be established. All of these platforms will be independently managed and users will occupy their platforms of choice.
These platforms will compete and a few will rise in user numbers and develop to the point of dominance. Early investors will likely win big in these particular platforms. Whether owning individual digital assets in these environments pays off is another question. Management of scarcity will be critical to ensuring value for investors. At the moment it feels like some sort of fear of missing out is driving market forces. Anyone familiar with the early days of crypto investment will understand what I mean. As time has played out that market, speculative investment has turned into real winners and losers. The metaverse will be no different. Serious investors should be looking for signs of success to reduce risk. Who is the team behind the development? What success have they achieved to date? What controls will be put in place to manage market forces such as scarcity of supply.
Willing buyers and sellers is key. This is where large existing user networks that successfully make the metaverse transition could dominate. Think facebook messenger execution. Though let’s not forget Google’s attempted social network fail. There is room for innovative new entrants here as long as they can navigate the chain of distribution to users. Think Magic Leap. Wait Magic Leap, remember them?
Who controls the devices also controls the data pipelines. The pipeline control determines the platforms. Get ready for a big device push from the major players, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Samsung. These major players have existing retail power to push devices to mass markets. As they do meta platforms will grow and the age of the metaverse has truly begun.
