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physical worlds. The metaverse is making advances in its goal to be uni- versally accessible to all through personal devices and wearable tech. It isn't a question of if, but when it fundamentally changes how we work, shop, connect with friends and participate in cultural moments.
“If you ask Mark Zuckerberg (CEO at Meta), the metaverse is the sum of all virtual worlds, connected as vast galaxies and planets. As part of his (yet to be built) version of the metaverse, players will be able to move their avatar and money across planets, as well as overlay the real world with virtual worlds. From a consumer uptake perspective, interopera- bility will be a huge factor in the realising of this vision.
“To get a glimpse of where we could be headed, have a look at the online gaming platform Roblox. This is a world with over 40 million users per day. Users have a single identity across all levels, a constant network of friends, and access to a common currency. That’s probably the closest thing we have to the metaverse right now.”
Ben Cooper, group innovation director, M&C Saatchi Group, and MD - Tricky Jigsaw: “When prompted to explain the metaverse for this article, my initial reaction was to think that the ship has long sailed. Thanks to Facebook’s rebrand, anyone reading this would have some metaverse aware- ness, but confusion remains since no definition seems to match another.
“Perhaps it might be worthwhile to consider what the metaverse is not? It’s not just one place. Clearly not coined by a marketer; ‘metaverse’ singular doesn’t help. But it’s too late now. The Internet as most of us know it now is hundreds of millions of sites, rendered as pages, that we visit and look at. The Internet’s next generation will be sites, rendered as 3D, AR, first person or third-person places, that we will visit and experi- ence. How many millions is anyone’s guess.”
Zoe Cocker, head of innovation & Yahoo Creative Studios ANZ: “Imagine trying to define the internet in the 70s. Innovators were hyped about the creation of an entirely new form of communication but no one could pro- vide one singular definition of what this new reality would look like. The same can be said for the metaverse. The metaverse doesn’t have a standard definition because it’s still a construct, it’s not final yet. That being said, there are some fundamental principles that many can agree on:
“It’s immersive. Your current web experience most likely exists in a browser within a 2D laptop screen or smartphone screen. The metaverse will be a 3D digital space, an all-encompassing immersive experience where you can roam about freely.
“Built on blockchain - one of the most distinguishing differences between Web2.0 and Web3.0 is the fact it's built on blockchain. It’s an entirely new economy. In the metaverse you can assign value to a digital object. For example a designer garment can exist in the ‘real world’ and be sold for an agreed value. Currently in Web2.0 the only value a digital version of that garment has is its reshare or like count. In the metaverse, they could create a digital version, mint it on blockchain and consumers’ could buy it for their avatars to wear across various virtual worlds, and the designer would get crypto in return.
“It’s interoperable, the benefit of a decentralised platform like block- chain means there’s no sole owner. Your digital avatar or object can transverse worlds, environments freely without restriction.
“It’s powered by multiple technologies. Web1.0 was enabled by dial-up modems and desktop computers, Web2.0 was enabled by wifi and lap- tops, Web3.0 will be powered by VR/AR/MR, game engines, 5G and tech- nologies we haven’t even conceived yet.
“The metaverse presents a unique opportunity to build a new type of internet and to learn from mistakes of the past. Advertisers and technology providers will need to anticipate any twists and turns the metaverse may have, and avoid the pitfalls of identity, walled gardens, and privacy that have plagued the internet since the onset of Web2.0.”
Jordan Taylor-Bartels, MD & founder, Magic: “It is a new digital world, that instead of scrolling a newsfeed, or viewing stories, you are in a large- scale map where you can check out your friend’s meta-home, see all of their art on their wall, check out their clothes in their closet, go into the
FiEgulre1m:ElemnenttsoffaaComCpoletmeMpetlaevetreseMetaverse
A complete metaverse could consist of some of the elements, as shown in Figure 1. It can be grouped by three technology stack groups: application/interface, content and
infrastructure, as shown in Table 1.
“Advertising in
the metaverse is not that different to advertising in the real world.
The metaverse is a place where people are congregating, coming together.”
Adidas store to purchase both dig- ital (NFT) or physical items, or even go to the latest Ed Sheeran concert with friends.
“First, it was emails, then it was
IRC rooms for programmers, then
it was HTML chat rooms, then it
was SMS, then it was MSN
Messenger, then it was MySpace,
then it was Tumblr, then it was
Facebook, then it was Instagram,
then it was Facetime, then it was
Fortnite, and now it is the
metaverse...an essential combina-
tion of the past experiences that
have lead up to this moment.
“What is unclear at the moment, is who the winner is going to be ... as it is that early.
“We asked the same in 1998, was it Ask Jeeves? AOL? Google? Or Yahoo? Much like in 1998, the nay-sayers in 2022 are also loud.”
The Opportunity
Martin Beecroft, Wunderman Thompson in Australia: “Advertising in the metaverse is not that different to advertising in the real world.
“The metaverse is a place where people are congregating, coming
CTIO, Wunderman
Gartner, Inc. | G00757746
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Thompson, Martin Beecroft
“The metaverse is, at its core, the digi-physical output of our experiences in Web2.0 (i.e. Facebook, i.e. Facetime); and in many cases, particularly for the existing metaverses, Sandbox and Decentraland, it is also decentral- ised via the blockchain.
Roblox
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