Image source @ Visual China
Text | Shi Tianhao
If there is anything hottest at the end of 2021, the meta-universe deserves it. "Everything is metaverse" seems to have become a new buzzword, and "social metaverse", "shopping metacosm" and so on are often heard in advertisements.
Just recently, there is news that Tencent will buy the game manufacturer Black Shark from Xiaomi to do VR to pave the way for the future meta-universe. Although the two sides did not comment on this, the transaction is highly likely to be seen by the outside world. Although Tencent did not hold high, this does not mean that Tencent will miss the meta-universe.
Tencent is a small step and a fast run, and some companies are big stride meteors, which proves that companies have great enthusiasm for the metacosm. Does the enthusiasm mean that the first stop of the metaverse will be the "marketing field"? On the other hand, the user side is in stark contrast to the enterprise, and the user side is more indifferent to the metaverse. So why does the metaverse form a contrast between the two heavens of ice and fire at both ends?
Hot enterprise side
The metacosm has been born for a long time, but the popularity began at the end of last year. The wind of the meta-universe is also rapidly sweeping across large and small enterprises, making enterprises become their loyal fans.
The Internet giant naturally does not miss the trend, Facebook changed its name to "Meta", and "Meta" is the prefix of "Metaverse", and its mind is clear. In addition, Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, ByteDance, Tencent, Baidu, NetEase and other Internet companies have begun to lay out the meta-universe. Among them, on December 27, 2021, Baidu officially released China's first meta-universe product, Xilang, and the Hebei Xiong'an Branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China "settled" in Xilang as the first batch of financial institutions. On January 4, Google spent $40 million (about 258.5 million yuan) to acquire a 4.6% stake in Hon Hai Group's subsidiary, Huahan Technology, and the two companies will work together to enter the meta-universe market.
To some extent, giant companies are the vane of small and medium-sized enterprises, and giants still have such enthusiasm, so other companies are "closed eyes". According to CNBC, the highly established brand Nike pioneered the system of charging terminals in the meta-universe sequence, and patented the opportunity to sell virtual goods and establish a virtual retail environment to sell these goods. Nike recently acquired RTFKT, a company that designs virtual sneakers and collectibles for Metacosmity. Adidas is also actively exploring metaversms, not only its brand adidas Originals entering the metacosm and issuing POP NFT, but also recently cooperating with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and meta-universe game platform The Sandbox to establish a meta-universe brand.
In addition to active layout, companies have also made great efforts to register trademarks. According to enterprise investigation data, by the end of 2021, a total of 11,376 applications for the "meta-universe" trademark in China, involving 1,692 companies. Among them, 11,374 applications were filed in 2021, involving 1,691 companies. That is to say, 99.9% of the "meta-universe" trademarks are registered and applied for in 2021, and 2021 is called the first year of the meta-universe trademark application.
Just on January 11, it was reported that Huawei was applying for the registration of the META-FI trademark, and the current trademark status was pending. It is understood that this is not the first time that Huawei has applied for a related trademark. On December 27, 2021, Huawei applied for the "METAMEDIA" trademark (the English trademark of Metamedia). Previously, Huawei had applied for the registration of trademarks such as "Hongmengyuan Service", "Hongmengyuan Procedure", and "HARMONYOS Yuan Service", of which the "Hongmengyuan Service" trademark had been registered.
In addition to giant enterprises, many companies in other industries are also "preemptive". According to enterprise investigation data, among the top 100 enterprises in the number of trademark applications in meta-universe, cultural and entertainment enterprises account for half of the country, with as many as 50, including games, film and television media, live broadcasting, digital publishing, MCN enterprises, etc. For example, "Kaiying Games" has applied for a large number of trademarks related to the legendary page game meta-universe; "Chinese Online" has applied for trademarks such as the April Sky Meta universe, the 17K meta-universe, and the IP meta-universe. It is worth noting that retail, education, automobile, Internet of Things, and psychological consulting companies also appear sporadically on the TOP100 list.
Among them, in terms of car companies, Beijing Chehejia Information Technology Co., Ltd., an affiliate of Ideal Automobile, applied for the registration of trademarks such as "Ideal Meta Universe". Xiaopeng Automobile, WEILAI Automobile and FAW Group all have applied for registration of trademark categories related to Meta-Universe. In terms of the Internet of Things, home appliance companies are also very positive, Hisense Group Co., Ltd. applied for trademarks such as "Hisense Yuan Universe", "Hisense Family Meta Universe" and "Hisense Love Family Meta Universe". For the boom in meta-universe trademark registration, many enterprises bluntly say that applying for relevant trademarks is actually a protective registration, in order to avoid possible counterfeiting in the future.
At the same time, meta-universe concept stocks are also rising. In 2021, Roblox, the first share of Metacosmos, was successfully listed, and Roblox's stock price soared to $134 per share after listing, nearly 3 times higher than the issue price. The largest increase in domestic stock prices was in Zhongqingbao, which rose by 249% in 2021 and rose by 475% during the period. The crazy rise in stock prices has also built a very imaginative market size for the metacosm, and it is reported that by 2024, the market size of the metacosm will reach $800 billion. PwC predicts that the meta-universe market size will reach $1.5 trillion by 2030.
Time to 2022, the trend of metaverses is still in full swing, according to the "IDC released the top ten predictions of China's meta-universe market in 2022", in 2022, Internet companies are expected to continue to increase the layout of meta-universe platforms in their respective fields, and the interaction and association between each other will still be weak. It is expected that by 2025, more than 3% of China's Internet users will have a virtual identity on such platforms.
Although it is not known whether more than 3% of netizens will have a virtual identity on such a platform by 2025, according to the current situation, the user side is not very enthusiastic about the metaverse.
Cold user side
The popularity of the "meta-universe" remains high, but the actual results are few, is it a new technology that is about to change the world, or is it an eye-catching concept hype? Will the Metacosm era really come as scheduled? These problems become a cloud of doubt in the minds of users. Indeed, the user's concern is not without reason, and the following aspects confirm that the user's concern is traceable.
1. There is a suspicion of deliberate speculation in the relevant concept stocks; on the evening of January 10, Zhongqingbao disclosed the acquisition plan, and the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Zhongqingbao Hong Kong, intends to acquire 51% of the equity of Baode Asset Management Hong Kong Co., Ltd. held by it from li Ruijie, the actual controller of the company, at a transaction price of HK$0. The target company intends to change its name to "Paullid Meta-Universe Digital Platform Limited".
The high-profile announcement of the acquisition of the actual controller company at 0 yuan soon received a letter of concern from the exchange again. In the letter of concern, the regulatory authorities first required Zhongqingbao to disclose the basic situation of the target company, Paul Lide, the pricing basis and reasonableness of the transfer consideration of 0 yuan, and explain the rationality and necessity of the transaction and the true purpose of the transaction in combination with the relevance of the business of Paullide and the meta-universe. In particular, for Zhongqingbao's statement that it intends to rename the target company to the relevant name of the meta-universe, the regulatory authorities question whether the company has deliberately created hot spots, gimmicks and other situations.
It is worth mentioning that since the second half of last year, China Youth Treasure has aroused at least four "four attentions" from the regulatory authorities. In addition, as far as the current soaring stock price is concerned, the excessive growth rate reveals that it is a little unreal, and it is difficult to guarantee that its stock price can remain high.
2, there are fewer landing products, and the experience is not good; although the metaverse is highly sought after, in fact, there are not many related landing products, and many outside worlds speculate that the fastest foothold of the metacosm is the game field, because the metacosm is first derived from the game field. Despite speculation, no practical results have been seen at this time.
In addition, some companies have also launched related products in the name of meta-universe, such as Facebook's Oculus Quest 2 headset, some users have used headphones to experience Facebook's meta-universe, for the experience, she described: "Considering that this technology is still very young, I found it impractical to use for a long time, especially outside of entertainment or gaming capabilities." After spending a few hours in this metaverse, I discovered that more drawbacks of this new world appeared, on the one hand, I began to sweat and feel nauseous; on the other hand, when I wanted to play games in the meta field, I had to create a new avatar from scratch, which was very inconvenient. "It can be seen that there is still a lot of room for improvement in metaverse-related products."
3, the calmness of the official media cools down the metaverse; for the metaverse on the cusp of the storm, the attitude of the official media may provide some direction for users who are confused. The website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission recently published an article saying that rationally looking at the new round of technological revolution and impact on society brought about by the metacosm, we should not underestimate the opportunities of 5-10 years, nor overestimate the evolution and changes in 1-2 years. At present, some companies speculate that the concept of metaverse is quite different from the real metacosm, and it is necessary to de-falsify the truth and make careful judgments. The "People's Daily Review" WeChat public account also previously published an article saying that everyone still needs to rationally look at the current meta-universe boom and be wary of any flickering in the name of science and technology and the future; is it a mirror flower or a touched future, is it a capital hype or a new track, is a new bottle of old wine or a new breakthrough in science and technology, and may wish to "let the bullet fly for a while" before concluding.
In addition, relevant authoritative institutions and analysts also said that they should rationally look at the metaverse, and Ma Tianyi, chief analyst of the metacosmology industry of the Minsheng Research Institute, believes that there are still many uncertainties in the embryonic metacosm, and the industry and the market urgently need to return to rationality. Haitong International Research Report pointed out that the current development of the metacosm is still in the initial embryonic stage, there is still a certain distance from the complete landing, and there is still a large space for development of various underlying technologies.
The metaverse is not surprising that the metaverse is cold on the user side, as mentioned above, the current metacosm is still in a stage of exploration, whether it is a company or an individual, it is impossible to see the full picture of the metacosm, one-sided cognition, can not wait to follow, it is indeed not rational enough.
The enterprise end is in full swing, and the user side is cold, which makes the metaverse fall into a situation of ice and fire, so where is the landing point of the metaverse in a different situation?
The metaverse of ice and fire may settle in the "marketing field"
Looking back, the reason why companies have great enthusiasm for the metacosm is because of the marketing value of the metacosm. For example, Liang Jianzhang, chairman of the board of directors of Ctrip, said: "As a tourist, we should fully display the advanced interests of a more advanced, more interesting, more complex and more logical universe, and we must make tourism more interactive, more immersive, more interesting, and the experience should be far better than the meta-universe." We are not completely abandoning the metaverse, or we can use the technology of metaverse virtual reality to simulate the real universe, preview the real universe, market the real universe, stimulate the desire and inspiration for the exploration of the real universe, and in turn promote the real universe, which is what we need to do. ”
From its words, it can be perceived that many enterprises are the first to see a lot of value behind the metaverse before individuals, and the marketing value is one of them, and it is also the first to appear before other values appear. Because of its own particularity, marketing tends to be ahead of the product. Because if you wait for the technology to really land, and then publicize to the outside world, I am afraid it will only be too late, and the product will be obsolete before the user accepts the concept. Therefore, publicity is always one step ahead of the product, and before the product is born, the relevant concepts are constantly introduced to the user, which is an educational process.
From the current point of view, the value of establishing a "marketing field" in the metaverse is gradually being released, and it has attracted many users who are at the forefront. In September last year, American hip-hop singer SnoopDogg announced that he had joined The Sandbox Metafilecence, acquiring a piece of land for building a virtual mansion and launching interactive experience projects in Sandbox, including concerts and NFTs. On November 23 last year, singer Lin Junjie posted on social platforms that he had spent $123,000 to buy three virtual lands on the virtual reality platform Decentraland.
Not only buying land, in recent years, NFTs have also successfully attracted the attention of entertainment and sports stars. NBA star Curry spent about $180,000 in September 2021 to buy a blue "Boring Ape" JPG avatar, which also completely ignited the "Boring Ape" series of NFT works. Even in the circle of friends of the editor, there are friends who are paying attention to this series of products.
At the same time, on January 1, the meta-universe platform Ezek and Jay Chou's tide brand PHANTACi sold the NFT project Phanta Bear for the first time, with a maximum issuance limit of 10,000 units and a unit price of 0.26 Ether (about 6,200 yuan), with a total price of more than 62 million yuan. Not long after Jay Chou entered the meta-universe NFT Phantom Bear (Phanta Bear), Chen Guanxi also joined the camp of promoting NFTs. On January 8, Chen Guanxi posted the same series of NFT avatars of the phantom bear on his personal social media account and interacted with Jay Chou.
On the surface, the NFT avatar used by these stars is just a JPG picture, but in fact, each JPG corresponds to a unique address on the blockchain network, and can verify the authenticity of the NFT. These virtual collections play the same collection value as the real world in the metaverse world, and also play a certain social value.
As a group of people with their own traffic, celebrities are actively trying the meta-universe, on the one hand, it verifies that the meta-universe marketing field that enterprises bet on is playing a role, on the other hand, it also indicates that the meta-universe has a very broad space for realization. Moreover, enterprises also have sufficient financial capabilities, abundant scientific research strength, and long-term strategic vision, which are indispensable basic elements for the development of the metacosm.
Although the dream of living in a virtual world is still far away, there is no denying that the metaverse will be an excellent marketing venue, where there is everything new, immersive, interesting and explosive. Although enterprises and users have not yet formed a cognitive unity, it is believed that under the tireless pursuit of enterprises, the metacosm has a further development, and the controversy will gradually subside with the development of science and technology.
Resources:
1. "There is wine, meat and tea, and everything can be meta-universe?" - Friends of 36 Krypton
2, "Metaverse, just a whim idea? "——Hairball Technology
3. "Zhongqingbao 0 yuan related acquisition of Yuan universe company The actual controller synchronously plans to reduce its holding by 3% and is suspected of creating a gimmick" - Changjiang Business Daily
4. "Buy a piece of land in the meta-universe" - Beijing Business Daily
5. "Metaverse low open 2022, has the outlet passed?" Rhino Entertainment
6. "Fudan and Tencent released: "Everything can meta-universe" is the main culprit with a biased direction " - Blue Whale Finance
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