Is the metacosm the end of digital transformation? | Titanium Media T-EDGE

Image source @ Titanium Media T-EDGE Conference Metacostem Summit

30 years ago, the famous science fiction novel "Avalanche" first proposed metaverse, that is, the concept of metaverse, in which many cyberpunk scenes such as smartphones, virtual reality and digital currencies are now realized. Today, the concept of meta-universe has suddenly caught fire, which not only makes people talk more after dinner, but also successfully sets off a wave of capital markets.

In March, roblox, an online game company, landed on the New York Stock Exchange, taking the lead in detonating the concept of a metaverse, and Tencent was also an investor and publisher of Roblox; in July, Facebook announced All in metaverse and renamed the company "Meta"; in August, ByteDance spent $1.5 billion to acquire VR equipment manufacturer Pico... Giants have entered the game, triggering the public's cognitive anxiety about the metaverse. What is the nature of the metacosm? Is it only when you wear VR glasses that it is called metacosm? Who will be the first key to unlocking the metaverse?

On December 10th, at the 2021 T-EDGE Global Innovation Conference co-hosted by Titanium Media Group, Daxing Production Promotion Center and National New Media Industry Base, Li Yang, Ph.D. of Columbia Business School, Associate Professor of Marketing at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Yi Huanhuan, Chairman of Yi Stock Tianxia, CEO of Huajian Function Fund, Ren Zheng, Founding Partner of Consensus Lab and Founder of MetaEstate of Yuanzhu Technology, and Yang Yao, Partner of Titanium Media Content and Editor-in-Chief, discussed the future of Metacosmity and digitalization.

The metaverse in science fiction movies

When it comes to metaverses, it can always be associated with science fiction movies. In the view of Li Yang, associate professor of marketing at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, the scene of poor people actively dreaming in pursuit of a rich life shown in "Inception" is very in line with the atmosphere of the metaverse. "It not only reflects human dreams of high-tech stars and seas, but also reflects everyone's dissatisfaction and escape from reality."

Ren Zheng, founder of Yuanzhu Technology, said that the game features mentioned in the movie "Out of Control Player", the economic system of the virtual space, and the various interactive actions that combine the virtual economy and the offline real economy may be a direction for the future meta-universe and the real society to open up.

"The metacosm as we understand and define it is a world in which human societies will live together in the future 10-15 years from now, and it can be divided into three stages of development, namely digital twin, digital native and virtual-real symbiosis." As the author of the world's first "Metaverse" trilogy, Yi Huanhuan believes that the three movies "Ready Player One", "Out of Control Player" and "Avatar" can better define the three development stages of the metaverse.

When it comes to whether VR can represent the metaverse, Yi Huanhuan said that VR is only a technical route formed by the metacosm, but it is not the only one.

"Each generation of Internet development corresponds to the next generation of computing platforms. Like our first generation was the PC era, it's one-dimensional. In the era of mobile Internet, the mobile phone becomes a part of the body, it is closer to the mind than the PC, it becomes a more important main device than the PC, it is two-dimensional. In the era of VR, AR, MR and future brain-computer interconnection, human life scenarios will become higher-dimensional three-dimensional environments. ”

Three key words in the metaverse

In order to alleviate the public's cognitive anxiety about the metaverse, the three guests gave their own three keywords for the metaverse.

Yi Huanhuan believes that the metaverse has three important characteristics: the first is the creator economy, the second is digital assets, and the third is AIGC, that is, the content generated by artificial intelligence. In the meta-universe era, creators are also consumers, they use artificial intelligence to create infinite digital assets, and then confirm rights through blockchain or other means to form a huge digital market. This means that the economic volume of the metacosm will be much larger than that of the previous two generations of the Internet.

Li Yang gave three keywords to the metaverse, one is "multiverse", the metaverse should not be dominated by oligarchic organization, a force, should be a multi-decentralized shared universe; the second is to take cybernetics as the theoretical basis, should not only convey human will to machines, but deep human-computer interaction, human-machine penetration. The third is "public participation". As a new technology and new ecology, the meta-universe requires extensive participation of the public, rather than a niche game.

The three key words given by Ren Zheng are wilderness, breaking the game and creating. In his view, the metaverse seems to be mature, but in fact it will take at least 10 years to develop. As a new way of breaking the game, the metaverse can change the way people think, experience and work. In addition, the metaverse places great emphasis on creation. "We don't want it to be just a digital twin, or an allusion to real society, we want it to be a creative metaverse."

In addition, Ren Zheng believes that the truly valuable metaverse should contain three characteristics: First, the crowdsourced creation of the content form, which should not be centrally and uniformly governed by a large factory. The second is to have the right to assets and value; for example, assets in the metaverse cannot be issued at will, and equipment in the game cannot be increased or decreased at will. The third is that the rules are fair and transparent, and the governance rules of the metacosm should be fair, transparent and intelligent behavior.

The valuation logic of the metacosmonic concept

When it comes to why the "first stock in the meta-universe" is highly sought after by the capital market, Yi Huanhuan, who has had a 20-hour Roblox game experience, has a very good say. "ROBLOX offers a range of game components, game templates and tools that keep the threshold for creation low, and a primary school student can build a game on their own with a little bit of study." Yi Huanhuan pointed out that Roblox provides a complete set of economic systems and engines, and according to the degree of contribution, it reasonably distributes revenue among heavy players, game developers and platforms. This is the core spirit of ROBLOX.

"Roblox is a company that has been working hard for a long time, so there is precipitation. It has a lot of bright spots that fit the characteristics of the metacosm, such as immersion and creation. In Ren Zheng's view, starting from just need, the metaverse should first be reflected in entertainment and social aspects. Roblox happens to have strong social attributes and game attributes.

Li Yang believes that the meta-universe is easier to land in the game industry. "The game and cultural and creative industries are the easiest to integrate with concepts such as meta-universe, blockchain, and NFT." He recognizes Roblox's creativity, but also points out some shortcomings, such as the chain can not reach a very fast speed, the amount of data processing is more limited, and so on.

By observing the layout of the world's leading industrial companies, Yi Huanhuan gave three paths for the development of the metaverse: one is Facebook's consumer-grade metacosm, the other is Microsoft's industry-oriented metacosm, and the third is the original metacosm based on Taifang. In terms of valuation, different companies have different valuation methods. Taking the platform as an example, we mainly look at three indicators: the number of users, the time users spend online, and the user immersion. Immersion, in particular, should become the main element.

Can the next generation of digital networks only be the game of giants?

Li Yang was not surprised by the entry of large companies, and even felt that it was inevitable. "The metacosm is linked to the digital technology under discussion. Even without the metaverse, the core technologies of the metaverse, such as virtual simulation and digital twins, are also the technologies that Internet companies are attacking. However, Li Yang also pointed out that the entry of giants has turned the metaverse into a walled garden of a small number of oligarchs, which is contrary to the ideal of a decentralized and pluralistic metaverse.

In Ren Zheng's view, the metaverse is a process of reshuffling. He recognized the dominant position of the big factory, but did not think that the meta-universe would be the sole food of the big factory.

"When we contacted the big factories, we found that the big factories are separated, and everyone is doing their own blockchain and meta-universe, and they are not interoperable with each other and are not willing to share with users." This fragmentation brings opportunities for more open and inclusive SMEs. In addition, Ren Zheng feels that the meta-universe will give birth to many new occupations and new industries, such as building, clothing design, game development, etc. in the meta-universe, which also gives many small and medium-sized enterprises a more open and fair way to choose. So the metacosm must be a process of reshuffling.

(This article was first published on the Titanium Media App, and the author |.) Ma Joan)