Half a year after the metacosm exploded: did the bubble burst? What challenges do you pose to traditional regulation?

Recently, AR (augmented reality) glasses manufacturer Nreal announced the completion of a $60 million C+ round of financing, led by Alibaba. Starting from 2021, known as the "first year of the meta-universe", many Internet giants such as domestic BAT and foreign Meta and Microsoft have been laid out. But there are also views that question that the current metacosm is just a capital bubble that will soon burst.

In this regard, Guan Wenjun, partner and head of digital innovation in EY Greater China, believes that in the short term, there are indeed cases of using the concept of metacosmity to create investment bubbles, but the value of metacosmology should not be denied. In the future, we should promote the landing of the meta-universe from three aspects: continuous research and development of underlying technologies, improving industry supervision, and strengthening industry applications.

In the short term, there is indeed a metacosmic bubble in the industry

On October 28, 2021, mark Zuckerberg, then Facebook's CEO, announced that Facebook would be renamed Meta, quickly igniting the concept of a "metacosm."

According to reports, the essence of the metacosm is an integral part of the digital economy, which is based on the combination of cutting-edge technologies and underlying technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, AR (augmented reality)/VR (virtual reality), 3D images, etc. But it means a digital ecosystem, with more emphasis on new experiences, new scenarios, and new business applications in the digital economy.

"There are more (and meta-universe-related) in the market now is the retail and consumer industries." Kwan mentioned that many companies attract consumers through technology or atmosphere and creating an experience that combines virtual and real. In his view, in addition to the consumer industry, the application prospects of metacosm in the manufacturing industry and education and training are also very broad.

For example, some companies have begun to use three-dimensional technology in the manufacturing process such as design and planning, so as to improve efficiency and reduce costs. In terms of vocational education and enterprise internal training, artificial intelligence teaching assistants can be created, and more interactive data of students and teachers can be collected and analyzed, and teaching according to their aptitudes.

From the perspective of meta-universe products, Chang Ying, a strategic and trading partner at EY Greater China, said that at present, the products for individuals have been landed more related to hardware, the research and development cycle is relatively long, the price is high, and most of them are still in the process of cultivation and development; enterprise-oriented products are divided into three categories: infrastructure, underlying platform and innovative tools, of which innovative tools will be relatively fast commercial landing and bring sustainable income, such as 3D modeling, virtual space design and so on.

Under the metaverse boom, many people also question that the metacosm is just a makeover of existing technology, attracting capital and eyeballs, or even just a capital bubble.

For these views, Guan Wenjun admitted that similar situations have indeed been observed in the short term, because "people have not really rationally spent time analyzing and understanding the market." He said that he has a positive attitude towards whether the metacosm can increase the value of the enterprise, but how high the increase is, whether investors will have excessive expectations, and also need to do a good job in market education, so that enterprises understand investment risks and avoid the emergence of bubbles as much as possible.

Chang Ying also mentioned when talking about the investment layout of the meta-universe that whether it is an investment enterprise or an individual investor, first of all, we must understand the domestic and foreign trends, technological development and application scenarios of the meta-universe industry, as well as relevant laws and regulations; secondly, the management of the investment enterprise should contact new talents and inspire its ability to lay out strategies for the metacosm and the digital economy, and reach an agreement from top to bottom.

Will the future metacosm be decentralized?

Talking about how the metaverse is from concept to landing, Guan Wenjun said that at the technical level, it is necessary to continue the research and development of underlying technologies such as 5G, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and blockchain; at the regulatory level, it is necessary to combine each subdivision to continue to improve and establish policies close to the market economy; at the industry level, it is necessary to combine with the application and content of the industry to better use the experience scenarios of the metacosm to add value.

"In the future, I think the (meta-universe) market and its application will develop rapidly in one or two years, and the regulations will become more and more perfect." He said.

At the same time, with the rapid development of Web3 (the Internet that emphasizes user autonomy), a key question has become increasingly urgent: Will the metaverse be decentralized or centralized in the future?

Kwan did not give a definitive answer. He believes that the metaverse is still in the early stage of development, the results of its development may not be determined, and the two routes have obvious advantages and disadvantages.

Under the centralized route, the meta-universe platform first solves the problem of data ownership, as well as the fairness of governance or the control of the platform's super account; the decentralized route is to solve the problem of efficiency and community governance, and from the perspective of existing technology, it does not have the technical conditions to achieve complete decentralization.

"In the real business world, it's not really an either-or choice question." Guan Wenjun believes that the more likely future development direction is the combination of the above two routes. Which route to eventually go, or which route to prefer, will not be clearly answered until the development of technology.

So, will the metacosmity, as a new concept, pose a challenge to traditional regulation?

Guan Wenjun pointed out that the metacosm is an important part of the digital economy, and some industry laws and regulations introduced in recent years can be applied to it. In the future, the supervision of digital assets may also be strengthened.

"Not only the metacosm, I think every emerging technology faces certain challenges in the initial stage of development... With the popularity of the metaverse and its application in different industries, I believe that more policies will be introduced. Guan Wenjun also stressed that in addition to regulations, it is also very important for the public to popularize the concept of metaversity and avoid wrong views.

Written by: Intern Yang Xixia Nandu reporter Jiang Lin Hu Gengshuo