360 views on tech #51: What Is a Metaverse? And Should You Be Buying In?
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What Is a Metaverse? And Should You Be Buying In?
by Jakie Wiles— Gartner
Enterprises are starting to place bets on the metaverse, but don’t overcommit in these early days of nascent metaverse technologies.
Despite hype about “the” metaverse, it isn’t yet a single entity. Rather, a metaverse today comprises multiple emerging technologies — and organizations should be careful when investing in a specific metaverse as it is too early to determine which investments are viable for business in the long term.
Nevertheless, metaverse technologies promise the next level of interaction in the virtual and physical worlds, providing innovative new opportunities and business models.
What is a metaverse?
Technically, a metaverse is a collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical and digital reality.
A metaverse is not device-independent, nor owned by a single vendor. It is an independent virtual economy, enabled by digital currencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
As a combinatorial innovation, metaverses require multiple technologies and trends to function. Contributing trends include virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), flexible work styles, head-mounted displays (HMDs), an AR cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, artificial intelligence (AI)and spatial computing.
4 key innovations make metaverse a strategic technology trend:
- Innovation №1: Web3, which is a new stack of technologies for the development of decentralized web applications that enable users to control their own identity and data. Web3 and metaverse complement each in a community or ecosystem where value in some form is exchanged between people or organizations — or a combination.
- Innovation №2: Spatial computing, which can be defined as a three-tiered technology stack through which users experience the intersection of the physical and digital worlds.
- Innovation №3: Digital twin of a person (DToP) not only mirrors a unique individual, but is also a near-real-time synchronized multipresence, with the ability to be present in multiple places at the same time in both digital and physical spaces.
- Innovation №4: Digital twin of a customer (DToC), a subset of DToP, is a dynamic virtual representation of a customer that simulates and learns to emulate and anticipate behavior. Customers can be individuals, personas, groups of people or machines.
Why is there hype around the metaverse?
There is a lot of excitement around metaverse, driven by technology companies preemptively claiming to be metaverse companies or creating a metaverse to enhance or augment the digital and physical realities of people.
Eventually, metaverse will provide persistent, decentralized, collaborative and interoperable opportunities and business models that will enable organizations to extend digital business.
In short:
- “The” metaverse doesn’t yet exist. A metaverse today comprises multiple emerging technologies that promise the next level of interaction in the virtual and physical worlds.
- A metaverse is not device-independent, nor owned by a single vendor. It is an independent virtual economy, enabled by digital currencies and NFTs.
- Opportunities are emerging fast, but organizations should be careful when investing in a specific metaverse, as it is too early to determine which are viable for the long term.
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💸 Money matters
- Oxbotica, on the way to unlock the benefits of autonomous technology for people and organisations across the world, raised €130M, from Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co., Ltd, ENEOS Innovation Partners, bp ventures, BGF, Halma, Hostplus, Kiko Ventures (IP Group), Ocado Group, Tencent, Venture Science and ZF.
- Aerones, a startup aiming to improve the prospects of wind power through better turbine maintenance and inspection, raised €27.7M, from Lightrock, Haniel,Change Ventures, Mantas Mikuckas, Metaplanet, Pace Ventures and Future Positive Capital.
- Hystar, the startap that developed a way to scale hydrogen production in a way that is 100% green and clean, raised €24M, from AP Ventures, Mitsubishi Corporation, Finindus, Nippon Steel Trading, Hillhouse Investment and Trustbridge Partners alongside existing investors SINTEF Ventures and Firda.
- CHOOOSE, a startup helping fuel decarbonisation efforts through digital tools, raised €13.8M, from GenZero and SOUNDWaves, Shell Ventures and Vinyl Capital, Amadeus IT Group and Contrarian VC.
- EvenFi, a peer-to-peer lending platform, raised €2.2M, from Pacific Capital Partners.
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