The meta-universe industry is still in its infancy In the first year, there is more investment in the concept of the secondary market

Per reporter: Wen Menghua Intern reporter Li Jianning Per reporter Per reporter: Dong Xingsheng, Wang Keran

In 2021, it seems that the whole world is talking about metaversities.

From the pursuit of capital, to the entry of technology giants, to the continuous surge in the concept of the meta-universe in the A-share market, games, social networking, short videos... Metaverse concept products are constantly emerging. In the eyes of admirers, the metacosm is a well-deserved "outlet" this year.

Courtesy of the organizer

According to the prediction of securities companies, by 2025, the total domestic market space of Meta-Universe in the fields of social networking, games, short videos, and mobile office will be about 340 billion yuan to 640 billion yuan, which will bring broad growth space to the whole society by 2030.

However, the emergence of new things is often a combination of opportunities and controversies. Under the hustle and bustle, whether the metaverse, which is still in the conceptual stage, is a bubble or an outlet, hype or trend, still needs to be a big question mark.

On December 23, at the "2021 Artificial Intelligence Future Application Scenario Forum" held by the Daily Economic News, Shen Xiangyang, a top expert in the field of artificial intelligence, a foreign academician of the National Academy of Engineering, a foreign academician of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a double-employed professor of the Institute for Advanced Study of Tsinghua University, Chai Jinxiang, founder & CEO of Mofa Technology, and Xiao Hong, CEO of Perfect World, shared the future application scenarios of artificial intelligence through keynote speeches and passed on the future artificial intelligence ecological construction rules.

In the roundtable dialogue session, the hot meta-universe became the focus of discussion, and Senior investors and head companies such as Century Huatong's chief strategy official Hui, Guangzhou Jiu's Vice President liang Zhensheng, iQIYI Intelligent COO Sun Feng, Tianfeng Securities Research Institute Deputy Director Wen Hao and other senior investors and head companies discussed the future trend of the meta-universe.

Immersion technology and immersion Are key points in the future development of the meta-universe

"2021 is the first year of the meta-universe." Wen Hao said. In his view, the current mobile Internet user dividend is nearing the end, and the entire Internet industry is looking forward to the next wave of science and technology.

However, although the concept of meta-universe is hot, the industrial development is still in its infancy, and how to truly combine with the industry to achieve landing is the most concerned issue in the current industry. In the eyes of many industry insiders, technology and immersion are the key points for the further development of the metacosm. This means that the mature metaverse is inseparable from emerging technologies such as AI, 5G, cloud computing, and AR/VR as the underlying support.

Liang Zhensheng, who has witnessed the rapid development of the VR industry, said: "The VR industry is most concerned about the development of immersive technology in the metaverse. In the metaverse, we emphasize virtual identities, social systems, economic systems, etc., but its first nature I think must be immersion, and being able to enter the immersive world of the metaverse anytime and anywhere is a key technical point. ”

In the past two years, with the help of VR, AR, XR technology, cloud performances, virtual concerts, etc. have emerged in an endless stream, which not only enhances the immersive experience of users, but also brings more imagination to the development of future entertainment content. "VR is the most critical implementation path to achieve metacostem immersion systems." iQIYI Intelligent COO Sun Feng said.

Recalling the first time he experienced VR, Sun Feng admitted that in the 3D enclosed space, a virtual person is really standing in front of him, and the shock brought by the virtual immersion is completely different from the two-dimensional experience, which is the charm of VR.

At present, VR has been fully applied in the fields of games, entertainment, display, and cultural tourism. However, Liang Zhensheng believes that the metaverse is definitely not just an application of entertainment scenes, it can bring consumers back to the past, experience the present, and perceive the future. "The core of the metacosm is the improvement of productivity and production efficiency, and it is an important process for human beings to evolve from industrial civilization to digital civilization."

Among the many conceived application scenarios, games are generally considered by the industry to be the most likely to achieve the "metaverse" landing. In April this year, Century Huatong's self-developed game "Shining Town" was launched on Roblox and received the attention of a large number of users around the world. It is reported that "Shining Town" is a representative product launched by Century Huatong in the content side of the meta-universe.

Century Huatong chief strategy official Hui said that the development of the metacosmity relies on breakthroughs in engine technology as well as artificial intelligence and machine learning. "The metaverse itself is a digital world, which needs a huge amount of content as a foundation, which requires more artificial intelligence and machine learning content creation as an auxiliary means to improve efficiency, so artificial intelligence and machine learning will become important grassroots capabilities."

In Fang Hui's view, in order to build a metaverse, there must first be a virtual community, the most important of which is the interaction problem. At present, the interaction between people is mainly the information interaction of pictures and texts and videos, and in the metaverse stage, it will become a pure scene interaction.

"In the field of interaction, game companies have natural advantages in the fields of engine use, content creation, and commercialization, which is also one of the important factors in promoting the development of the metaverse in the early stage, which can have good economic benefits and empower the upstream and downstream of the metaverse industry chain."

Metacosm is the trend of the times The market is looking forward to the next wave of technology

Since September this year, the meta-universe storm blown up by the A-share market has made many meta-universe concept stocks widely sought after. The People's Daily commented that the bullets of the metacosmity should fly for a while, and many analysts also said that they should be wary of the false hype of hanging sheep's heads and selling dog meat. However, it is undeniable that with the preemptive registration of the meta-universe trademark and the solicitation of basic technology enterprises by large factories, the meta-universe has become an indispensable new outlet for various enterprises.

Is the metacosm a hype-up conceptual bubble, or is it the key to unlocking the next generation of the Internet?

"The meta-universe is already the trend of the times, whether it is the power of enterprises or the pursuit of the market, they are embracing it in different ways." As a senior analyst who has observed the Internet industry for many years, Wen Hao believes that from Facebook's change of name to Meta to ByteDance's acquisition of Pico, the layout of the company and the pursuit of investors have formed a kind of "resonance", which also reflects the secondary market's expectations for the next wave of technology.

In addition to investment on the technology side, many people have also found new business opportunities in content products. Decentraland and SandBox, a virtual world platform built on the blockchain, have set virtual real estate price records, and have also attracted well-known singer Lin Junjie to buy their own virtual land.

"Virtual real estate is not fundamentally different from other products, as long as the buyer believes that the product brings value that matches the price, that's the right thing to do." Sun Feng believes that everyone has different value judgments about virtual real estate, so speculating on virtual real estate will not become a public behavior.

In fact, whether it is the pursuit of the concept of meta-universe or the hype of virtual assets, in the eyes of many entrepreneurs and investors, behind the superficial hustle and bustle, the substantive impact of technological innovation and industrial upgrading is more important.

As Fang Hui emphasized: "The development of the Internet has improved social efficiency and brought people a richer spiritual world, and the future metaverse should have more important functions and values in many fields such as politics and economy in addition to the imagination of entertainment scenes such as games, which is the focus of our attention." ”

The concept of metaverse is constantly hyped up, and it is necessary to remove falsehoods and make prudent judgments

In fact, the concept of a metaverse has a long history, but it will not be completely "out of the loop" until 2021.

The "2020-2021 Meta-Universe Development Research Report" released by the New Media Research Center of Tsinghua University clearly pointed out that 2020 is the tipping point of human social virtualization, paving the way for 2021 to become the first year of the meta-universe. On the one hand, the epidemic has accelerated social virtualization, the time spent on the Internet in the whole society has increased significantly, and the "home economy" has developed rapidly; on the other hand, online life has become the norm from the original short-term exceptional state, from the supplement of the real world to a parallel world with the real world, the real life of human beings has begun to migrate to the virtual world on a large scale, and human beings have become "amphibian species" of reality and digital.

The reporter noted that in the upcoming 2021, there have been waves of meta-universe boom, and various related technologies, concepts, and hype have emerged in an endless stream. 2021 is also known as the first year of the meta-universe.

How hot the metaverse concept really is during the year can be seen in the selection of some institutions. For example, on December 6, some institutions rated metaversity as one of the "top ten online terms in 2021"; on December 8, the editorial board of "Chewing Words" released "Top Ten Buzzwords of 2021", and Metacosm was among them.

At the same time, some internationally renowned institutions are also optimistic about the future prospects of the meta-universe. For example, bloomberg industry research reports predict that by 2024, the meta-universe market size will reach $800 billion; PwC expects the meta-universe market size to reach $1.5 trillion by 2030.

However, no one may fully say exactly what the future development and evolution of the metaverse will be, but one thing is basically certain that there is still a long way to go in various explorations and innovations in the metacosm.

It is worth mentioning that on December 23, the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission published an article entitled "How the Metacosm rewrites human social life". The article said that there is no single technology called "metaverse" in the world, the metacosm is the combination and upgrade of various existing technologies, which can be understood as the "3D version of the Internet"; multiple factors promote the metacosm from concept to popularity, which can bring development opportunities for the combination of games and social networks, retail and e-commerce links, industrial Internet, etc.; rationally look at the new round of technological revolution and impact on society brought by the metacosm, do not underestimate the opportunities of 5 to 10 years, nor overestimate the evolution and change of 1 to 2 years.

The article pointed out that with the popularity of the metaverse topic, some routines that use related concepts to "circle money" have also emerged. As of mid-November, China has applied for more than 4,300 meta-universe trademarks, involving nearly 700 companies, of which 99.9% of the trademarks were registered this year.

Many people in the industry believe that although the metacosm has pointed out the direction for the future of the Internet industry, there is also a big bubble in the metacosm.

The above article also clearly reminds that at present, some companies hype the concept of metaverse and the real metaverse are quite different, and it is necessary to de-falsify and store the truth and make careful judgments.

A recent Xinhua News Agency report mentioned that some experts believe that the current meta-universe industry is in the initial stage of development, with the characteristics of immature and unstable emerging industries. There are still many uncertainties in the metaverse, and both industries and markets urgently need to return to rationality.

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