【Editor's Note】 Metaverse, the English name Metavrese, which originated from the concept of "Avalanche" in science fiction primary schools, shines in 2021: from NVIDIA's Lao Huang to Facebook's Xiaoza, to the domestic Baidu, NetEase, Tencent, Internet giants have laid out places. The first year of the metacosm?
Through interviews with industry experts, practitioners and analysts, the surging news reporter analyzed the "past and present lives" of the meta-universe, and first explored the meta-universe industrial chain and investment opportunities that Xiao he only revealed.
"An exciting opportunity is coming, the mobile Internet has been developing for a decade, and it is about to usher in the next wave of upgrades, which we call the True Internet."
This is the end of 2020, Tencent Chairman and CEO Ma Huateng posted in Tencent's internal publications. At that time, the concept of metaverse had not yet become popular, and now this sentence has been quoted many times because of the explosion of the metaverse.
The concept of meta-universe is popular, and domestic Internet technology companies are also accelerating their entry, NetEase's "Yaotai", Baidu's "Xi'an", Ali's establishment of XR Lab, ByteDance's acquisition of Pico to make up for hardware shortcomings, Tencent's investment in related companies, but also pay attention to the construction of larger digital scenarios related technologies...
According to data from Tianyancha, as of December 30, 2021, there have been more than 12,000 trademark applications in China with "Meta Universe" in their names, and the relevant trademark applicants include Tencent, NetEase, Baidu and other major manufacturers, as well as well-known enterprises in saic, Michelle Ice City, Shuanghui, Hisense, Foxconn and other industries.
Why are they all laying out the metaverse? Anxin Securities pointed out in its research report that the metacosm is still in the early stage of development, and the every move of technology companies is not only to add bricks and tiles to maintain their existing industry status, but also to jointly shape the final form of the metacosm through their own efforts.
However, the People's Daily commentary has pointed out that it takes time to promote the gradual maturity of new concepts and their industries, and the road to a fascinating future of science and technology requires down-to-earth and a good foundation for development. Just as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (MR) are, the central word is "reality", which also indicates that without the support of reality, it is a mirage without roots.
How are the domestic Internet giants progressing in the metacosm? And how is it laid out?
Tencent: Investing in or acquiring industrial chain companies
Compared with other Internet companies in China, Tencent seems to have entered the meta-universe earlier.
From the perspective of investment, in February 2020, Tencent participated in Roblox's $150 million Series G financing. In March 2021, Roblox successfully landed on the New York Stock Exchange, and its market value exceeded $40 billion on the first day of listing, known as the "first stock in the meta-universe". In addition, Tencent has invested in Epic Games, the developer of fortnite games, holding a 40% stake in it. In April 2021, Epic Games raised $1 billion for meta-universe-related business development, setting a record for the highest financing on the meta-universe track at that time.
On January 10, 2022, The Paper's reporter learned from informed sources that Tencent intends to acquire domestic game mobile phone company Black Shark Technology ("Xiaomi" enterprise). According to media reports, the acquisition has been recognized by Xiaomi's senior management, and in terms of acquisition price, Black Shark Technology and Tencent have conducted relevant negotiations: Black Shark is valued at 3 billion yuan, and Tencent has cut to about 2.6 to 2.7 billion yuan.
Roblox, in which Tencent is involved, has successfully landed on the New York Stock Exchange
The surging news reporter inquired about the Tianyancha App and found that since September 2021, Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. has 99 trademark information on the "meta-universe", such as "QQ meta-universe", "phantom nuclear meta-universe", "peace elite meta-universe", etc., and the trademark applications are in the "waiting for substantive examination" stage.
Speaking of meta-universe related technologies, Li Congbing, deputy general manager of Tencent Interactive Entertainment's R&D efficiency department, previously said in an interview with The Paper that Tencent is paying attention to related technologies to build larger digital scenes. "Including PCG (procedural content generation technology), AI-based NPC interaction, and the ability to render in real time, we're all looking at it."
Li Congbing said that everyone's cognition of the metacosm is different, and not only one user platform can be called "metacosm". "In our view, games are more about building virtual spaces and scenes that are more realistic and closer to the ideal state, and our technology is also around this direction. But to say what the metaverse is like, whether to copy reality in the virtual, or simply refer to a virtual world, I don't think there is a clear form that can be clearly explained. ”
He told the surging news reporter that the most important technical issue for the meta-universe to break through when landing is whether it can provide immersive interaction and experience. "Immersive equipment, technology and experience are the threshold for the true industrialization of the metacosm."
Deng Dafu, deputy general manager of tencent interactive entertainment R&D efficiency department, believes that there are opportunities in two directions in the industry: First, the meta-universe will produce a large amount of three-dimensional content, but the three-dimensional world needs to have high-yield 3D production capabilities, which is still a very big challenge for the current technical capabilities.
The second is the development of the artificial intelligence industry. He mentioned that although everyone is talking about the metaverse at the moment, it is currently impossible for digital people to achieve intelligent dialogue, drive behavior and explore the world like "Westworld", and in technology, a partial breakthrough has been achieved. "But how to make them really fit together is a subject that we've been thinking about."
Another thing that is greatly related to the metaverse is the VR and AR industries, in this regard, Zou Haochuan, director of business strategy of Tencent Interactive Entertainment's New Experience and Technology Department, believes that the VR and AR industries will develop rapidly in the future. "In the past, we used game consoles, computers, and mobile phones, and society experienced the stage of binary Internet. Starting from VR, we will enter the stage of 3D Internet, which is an inevitable trend in the development of science and technology. ”
Tencent is also exploring the "digital person" technology, in the process of "digital-real integration" (the integration of digital economy and the real economy), digital people are an important basic technology module. Tencent's studio NExT Studios developed Siren Siren, a digital person at the time of high-guarantee realism, in 2018, which greatly restored the real image and was able to use emotions to drive facial expressions and body movements.
"In the future, with the continuous development of new technologies, the technical threshold and cost of digital virtual people will be greatly reduced, and virtual people will be used in a wider range of spaces and fields, truly becoming a part of daily life." Zhang Wei, vice president of Tencent Interactive Entertainment, said.
Zou Haochuan revealed that Tencent has formed a set of standard digital human production processes, combined with computer graphics and deep learning technology, hoping to break through the boundaries of the game industry in the future and apply realistic digital people to all walks of life. He said that at present, Tencent has cooperated with the well-known game manufacturer Epic Games to precipitate digital human technology into Unreal Engine to develop industrial applications outside of games for digital people. "Only the trinity of hardware, technology, and software content technology can really promote the industry."
Overall, due to its relatively complete territory in the fields of social networking, games and live broadcasting of the film industry, Tencent is considered to be a relatively comprehensive company in the current metaverse layout.
Anxin Securities also said in the research report that foreign media Not Boring has produced a complete industrial map of Tencent's meta-universe, with game channels + engine Epic as technical support, including game development platforms such as Roblox, League of Legends, Fortnite, Minecraft, etc., live broadcast communities such as twitch, Discord, and Douyu Huya; e-commerce channels such as Pinduoduo and Shopee; remote office software such as zoom and Tencent Conference.
Baidu: To become an infrastructure platform for metaversals
The related products of the metacosm are gradually landing, even if they are only prototypes.
B (Baidu) A (Ali) T (Tencent), the first to launch meta-universe products is Baidu, the first domestic meta-universe product "Xi'an" App officially launched on December 27, 2021 to earn enough eyeballs. Robin Li, founder, chairman and CEO of Baidu, commented: "Our way of getting together is both dreamy and realistic."
Although "Hiram" has evolved three times since March 2021, there are still many regrets in the user experience.
Xi'an App screenshot, the user experience is still full of shortcomings
According to the Global Network, Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360, recently said in an interview with reporters about Baidu's meta-universe product "Xilang" that in fact, peppercorns have long been made, but they are not particularly successful. It's not hard to build a virtual scene, and it's not hard for a virtual character to do a live broadcast, but it's hard to last.
The surging news reporter understands that the "Xi'an" project was launched as early as December 2020, and Baidu hopes to create a meta-universe prototype that can be reached, experienced and improved. According to Ma Jie, vice president of Baidu and head of Xilang, "Xilang" is a negative 6.0 version of the meta-universe product, until 6 years later, this product will be perfected, then it can be officially launched.
As for what "Hiram" will eventually look like, Ma Jie said: "None of us know what it will develop into, which is its biggest charm, but we know that it should be beautiful." ”
At this stage, why is the metacosm difficult to achieve? At the media communication meeting before the release of "Xi'an", Ma Jie said that under the current network technology conditions, vision, hearing and interaction are the three mountains hindering the development of the metaverse, and the challenges brought by technical difficulties are very large, and the path to solve the metaverse problem needs to break through a series of technical bottlenecks and require the support of strong basic technical capabilities. These key technologies include: secure, autonomous and intelligent cloud computing technologies; continuous innovation in artificial intelligence, ARM cloud, edge computing, intelligent video, VR and AR; and the construction of content ecology and a huge market foundation.
Hou Zhenyu, senior vice president of Baidu, said that computing is the underlying foundation of the metaverse, and the demand for computing power in the metacosm is nearly infinite.
According to Baidu's development logic in the metaverse, it hopes to become an infrastructure platform for the metacosm, providing AI, cloud computing and other technology engines for "Xi'an" and other metaversic products. For example, Baidu introduced that the distributed cloud of Baidu Intelligent Cloud can support users in the metaverse to access anytime and anywhere, and "Xi'an World" uses a large number of edge computing node resources distributed in various places.
"Bringing together the industry's leading AI, cloud computing and VR technologies, Greem's ultimate goal is to create a platform for our partners and developers, a platform where imagination can take root. In this second human space that will soon be parallel to the real world, we also look forward to its infinite possibilities and ultimately carry the bright future of High Tech-Better Life. Ma Jie said.
Baidu's promotion of Xi'an
According to the Tianyancha App, since October 2021, Baidu Online Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. has applied for a number of trademarks related to metacosmities, involving the fields of apps and maps. Among them, 3 articles on the invalidation of the trademark of "META MAPS", 1 article on the invalidation of the "METAAPP" trademark, 2 articles on the "METAAPP" trademark await substantive examination, and 6 articles on the trademark of "META MAP" await substantive examination.
Ali: Set up a laboratory for AR, VR, and meta-universes
Ali is also laying out the metacosm in a low-key manner.
On December 28, 2021, Alibaba DAMO Academy released the top ten technology trends in 2022, which is the top ten technology trends that DAMO Academy analyzed 7.7 million public papers and 85,000 patents in the past three years, interviewed nearly 100 scientists in depth, and proposed ten technology trends that may shine into reality in 2022, covering artificial intelligence, chips, computing and communications.
The "metacosm" of the fire did not appear in the top ten technology trends in 2022, but Alibaba Damo Academy proposed the trend ten "XR Internet", and it is expected that in the next three years, a new generation of XR glasses with an appearance and weight close to ordinary glasses will be produced, becoming the key entrance to the next generation of Internet.
At the 2021 Alibaba Yunqi Conference, Alibaba DAMO Academy announced the addition of two laboratories, of which the XR Lab is a new laboratory for AR, VR, and meta-universes.
Tan Ping, head of the XR Laboratory of Alibaba Damo Academy, said at the Yunqi Conference: "AR and VR glasses are the next generation of mobile computing platforms that will be popularized, and the new display and new interaction based on the new computing platform are the essence of the metaverse. The metaverse is very broad, including social, e-commerce, education, games, payment and other fields, and various applications in the mobile Internet era will produce new ways of presentation in the metaverse. ”
Tan Ping believes that the technology of the future "virtual world" can be divided into four levels. The first layer is holographic construction, which uses a triangular grid to establish the appearance of the entire world and display it on the terminal, creating an immersive experience. The second layer is holographic simulation, which makes the virtual world infinitely close to the real world. The combination of these two layers of technology can realize the virtual world in VR glasses. The third layer is the fusion of virtual and real, which allows the virtual world and the real world to merge. The fourth layer is the virtual-real linkage, and the changes in the virtual world can correspond to the real world.
According to the surging news reporter, the current research direction of XR Laboratory is three-dimensional modeling of objects and people, high-realism rendering, natural human-computer interaction, large-scale scene map and positioning, and robot grasping and manipulation. Products and applications include holographic stores, AR parallel worlds, and IDC intelligent operation and maintenance robots.
In addition, the main body of Alibaba's cloud game division, "Yuanjing Shengsheng", has also landed, or for Ali's further layout in the field of meta-universe games.
According to the Tianyancha App, on December 6, 2021, YuanjingShengsheng (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. was established, 100% owned by Hangzhou Ali Venture Capital Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of 10 million yuan, and Ali insiders revealed to the media that the company's future business is related to meta-universe.
In terms of trademark application, in September 2021, Alibaba Singapore Holdings Limited applied for the registration of trademarks such as "Ali Yuan Universe" and "Taobao Yuan Universe". The current trademark status is pending substantive examination.
Regarding Metacosmity, Essence Securities pointed out in its December 2021 research report that Alibaba has a first-mover advantage in laying out the underlying infrastructure cloud computing of Metacosmity. In addition, Ali is backed by rich e-commerce scenarios, and in the future, it can pay attention to its progress in reproducing e-commerce and marketing scenarios in the meta-universe.
NetEase: To promote the full-link exploration of the meta-universe
NetEase said that there are already meta-universe concept products landing.
In November 2021, Ding Lei, founder and CEO of NetEase, said at the company's third quarter earnings report that the metacosm is a very hot concept, but no one has been exposed to the metacosm at present. NetEase is ready in terms of meta-universe related technologies and rules. "We believe that the day the meta-universe really comes, NetEase has the ability to quickly rush."
Ding Lei said that all along, Based on diversified products, based on user needs, NetEase continues to attach importance to research and development investment, after long-term technology accumulation, has been in VR, AR, artificial intelligence, engines, cloud games, blockchain and other metaverse-related fields, has the world's leading technical reserves, fully equipped with the technology and ability to explore and develop meta-universes.
He mentioned that NetEase has landed meta-universe concept products such as Yaotai immersive activity system, virtual people, and planet blockchain, and has invested in a number of innovative companies in the field of virtual people to promote the full-link exploration of the meta-universe from front-end research and development to terminal business scenario applications. In the future, NetEase will also deeply combine exploration experience, technical advantages, and innovation models with real user needs and industrial needs, continue to pay attention to and increase investment in research and development, so that the metacosm can truly move from concept to application and effectively create value for society.
On December 2, NetEase Cloud Music landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and in the NetEase Fuxi immersive activity system "Yaotai", Ding Lei "doubled" three people to complete the "meta-universe" gong. NetEase said that this is the world's first "meta-universe" listing ceremony. The so-called three "Ding Lei", one is Ding Lei himself who knocked on the gong at the offline ceremony, and the other two are AI virtual people "Ding Lei", who are portrayed as 29-year-old Ding Lei in 2000 and Ding Lei, 50 years old in 2021.
NetEase's layout in the meta-universe does not stop there.
On December 25, 2021, NetEase signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Sanya Municipal Government, and NetEase will set up NetEase Hainan Headquarters in Sanya to build a NetEase Meta Universe Industrial Base Project. In addition, the two sides will also deepen cooperation in interactive entertainment, e-sports, music culture, e-commerce live broadcasting, online education and other fields.
According to the Tianyancha App, in October 2021, Hangzhou NetEase Leihuo Technology Co., Ltd., NetEase (Hangzhou) Network Co., Ltd., Guangzhou NetEase Computer System Co., Ltd. and other NetEase affiliated companies applied for the registration of trademarks such as "NetEase Meta Universe", "Thunder Fire Meta Universe" and "Fuxi Yuan Universe", and the trademark status was awaiting substantive examination.
ByteDance: Acquisition + self-developed layout metacosm
In August 2021, Pico, a startup in the VR space, sent an internal letter confirming that the company was acquired by ByteDance.
Open Source Securities believes that with the rise of the concept of "meta-universe", Internet industry giants and head game companies have begun to compete for the lead. As an important part of ByteDance's expansion, Pico will be incorporated into the VR business line to integrate Byte's content resources and technical capabilities. ByteDance's acquisition of Pico will have a significant impact on the long-dormant domestic VR field.
Pico's product acquired by ByteDance
Essence Securities pointed out that Tencent and ByteDance are the two companies with the smoothest layout metacosm logic in China. Under the guidance of the "capital + traffic" strategy, Tencent focuses on acquisitions rather than natural innovation to comprehensively lay out the metacosm. ByteDance is more radical, in order to supplement the "social" gene, with the acquisition, self-developed All In play.
According to the analysis of the research report, at present, ByteDance has acquired Pico in terms of hardware and operating system to make up for the shortcomings of hardware. In terms of underlying architecture, the developer of the investment physics engine is clean, and its teenage UGC platform "Restart world" is highly similar to "Roblox". Acquired Weijing Video, an end-to-end live broadcast solution provider, to provide VR end-to-end live/on-demand solutions based on core technologies. In terms of content and scenes, today's headlines, vibrato, watermelon video, Tik Tok, Faceu excitement, flying books, figure worms and other product matrices cover more than 150 countries and regions around the world, and the traffic is globalized.