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3 Key Points Why The Metaverse Is So Popular!
If there is one technology search phrase that is currently the most popular, it is “Metaverse” and its keywords!
The Metaverse and its related topics have sparked passionate discussion in the technology industry from last year to early 2022.
The search popularity and attention of the Metaverse have exploded, reaching the pinnacle of search! As a result, 2021 can be stated as “Metaverse: Year One”!
The following are the 3 reasons why the metaverse has piqued the interest of the technology community and the general public:
- Not just a screen but a new world, the young generation more emphasis on enjoyable and user-friendly experience.
- Along the path of technological innovation, it has spawned the development and application of new products.
- Entering the era of economic globalization, excess capital must develop new investment opportunities.
First, let’s explain from the demand level:
People’s connections in the real world have been weakened under the epidemic isolation and quarantine policy, and people have been interacting in virtual spaces for longer and longer periods.
The amount of time spent on the Internet by the entire society has spiked dramatically, online activities have become the norm from the original short-lived state of activity, and demand for virtual forms has also increased.
People demand a deeper and more immersive experience 
in the virtual space, that is, sensory and cognitive experience, in order to achieve the state of empathy, forgetting they are in a virtual space, and therefore achieving a state of flow.
Secondly, from the perspective of technological development:
With the development of VR/AR, 5G, Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and other technologies, those scenes that can only appear in science fiction or movies have been initially slowly presented in virtual space.
The continuous development of technology provides technical support for the construction of the virtual world. Therefore, there is a further attempt at virtual space. It also provides a visible and touchable mode for the virtual space, allowing users to experience a more immersive experience.
Finally, from the economic perspective:
Human IRL lives have begun to migrate in significant numbers to the Internet, and the virtual economy (or digital economy) is booming.
An emergent economy has evolved in the virtual world as the whole society migrates to virtual space on a large scale, consumes and makes money there.
Entrepreneurs and individuals with a keen sense of smell have seen huge business prospects in the future, and have successively injected a large number of funds into it.
Where Did The Metaverse Come From
The word Metaverse is portmanteau of two words Meta means Transcendence, and Verse means Universe. Specifically, it refers to a digital virtual world that transcends the universe.
The Metaverse itself is not a technology, but a idea and concept for a new decentralized digital space. It is driven by diverse forms of core technologies such as Blockchain 
, Cloud Computing, Internet Of Thing (IoT), Extended Reality (XR), and Digital Twin (DT) concept and make it concrete.
IoT refers to the connection of physical devices to the Internet.
XR refers to the converging technology that can switch between Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality.
DT is a virtual representation of a real-world entities in virtual world.
In fact, the metaverse isn’t a new concept, it’s a niche concept beloved of tech enthusiasts that can be found in “Virtual Reality” and digital “Second Life”.
The term metaverse was coined in the 1992 American science fiction novel “Snow Crash“, which described a very large 3D virtual world parallel to our IRL lives.
In this virtual world, people can interact through their digital avatars. In addition physiological needs, such as eating, sleeping, etc., must be fulfilled in the physical world. The rest, such as work, entertainment, socializing, etc., can be done in the virtual world.
However, its more recognized source of ideas can be traced back to the novel “True Names” published in 1981, which conceived a virtual world that can give people an immersive experience.
The Metaverse is essentially a digital representation of the physical world into a virtual world. People are no longer just viewers, through the digital avatars we can total immersion into the virtual world.
Whether in terms of reality or space-time, the metaverse is a virtual space in real-time, a real digital world; it has both digital replicas of the real world and creations of the virtual world.
Which Corporate Giants Are Heading Into Metaverse
At present, the Metaverse is still in the conceptual formation stage. Although some of its functions and applications have been gradually realized, its construction is still in the initial stage of development.
Even so, it is still unable to resist the enthusiasm and hype of investors, attracting a large influx of capital from all over the world.
Global technology giants are accelerating their deployment in core industries such as systems, applications, hardware, and software that have business relevant to Metaverse, and want to seize the business opportunities.
📢 On March 10, 2021, Roblox, a sandbox game platform, was the first company to include the “Metaverse” into its prospectus and successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In just one year, its market value exceeded 40 billion US dollars.
📢 On April 12, 2021, Nvidia announced that it will expand its “Metaverse” business.
📢 On April 13, 2021, American Epic Games announced a new funding round of $1 billion to advance its long-term vision for the “Metaverse”.
📢 China ByteDance invested in Code Qiankun, a game company focusing on the metaverse, and bought VR startup Pico in April and June 2021, respectively.
📢 On July 29, 2021, Facebook CEO Zuckerberg announced at a company meeting that it will transform into a “Metaverse” company within five years. The same year in October, Facebook rebranded itself as Meta. (I’m even more prescient and named myself “MetaStone”. That is, I am “The first Stone born in the Metaverse”!)
📢 China Baidu announced that it will hold the Create AI developer conference in Metaverse at the end of 2022, and applied for a trademark for the word “meta app” in advance.
Is the Metaverse The Beginning Of A New Era?
The Internet started as data sharing and slowly developed into an entertainment and social hub.
However, even if more 3D virtual space is presented in front of the users, people can no longer be satisfied with this low-immersive experience and expected the virtual space could generate the most realistic simulation experience
✳So is the Metaverse just a flash in the pan, or is it the beginning of a new era?✳
As far as the nature of technology is concerned, in the future, many people’s work and daily activities, such as education, entertainment, meetings, shopping, socializing, work, etc., can be carried out in the metaverse.
Although the concept of the metaverse is constantly changing, there is a consensus on a bright future ahead.
First of all, from the perspective of the market size, many well-known international institutions have publicly expressed their optimism about the future market size of the Metaverse.
According to the research forecast of Morgan Stanley, the global metaverse market size in the future may reach 8 Trillion US dollars.
Secondly, from the perspective of application scope, in addition to gaming, social interactions, entertainment, commerce, education, and other fields, Metaverse will have huge application prospects in the business office, public services, industrial manufacturing, tourism, and other fields.
Finally, from the perspective of industrial innovation, Metaverse will deeply integrate with different industries and fields, and use a new way to stimulate innovation in industrial technology and accelerate field applications.
Although the metaverse contains huge potential for development, both companies and individuals should follow their development rhythms and laws.
Everyone should be rational and gradually promote the maturity of its industries, instead of habitual malicious hype, to prevent the Metaverse from falling into a new round of tech bubble.
