Titanium Media App editors were interviewed in the Huadong Technology Office of the ARK Meta-Universe Office Platform
In this era of epidemic prevention and the gradual popularization of remote work, various traditional conference software has solved most of the rigid collaboration needs of employees in office scenarios. According to Ai Media Consulting data, the scale of China's collaborative office market has reached 26.42 billion yuan in 2021, and it is expected that from 2022 to 2023, the industry will maintain an annual growth rate of more than 10%, and the market size will reach 33.01 billion yuan in 2023.
However, under the explosive demand, there are still many dilemmas in remote office products: the "sense of being manipulated" of employees under the camera, the lack of immersion of offline office in cloud office, the difficulty of meeting the needs of employees to socialize occasionally, and the need for multi-interface switching for file transfer...
As a result, a small number of meta-universe office social platforms came into being. Meta's Horizon Workrooms, one of the world's largest decentralized virtual 3D platforms, Decentraland, currently provides conditions for some "digital nomads" who want to work in different locations; in China, the "Rainbow Universe" of the listed company Tianxiaxiu will also become the company's own cloud office platform; the startup Huadong Technology also built its own meta-universe office platform at the end of last year - ARK...
Correspondingly, companies have also begun to emerge on the platform: Mediahub Worldwide, a global media planning agency with customers such as Netflix, recently leased land in Decentraland and built its own office building; South Korea's global film operation company CGV also plans to move into ARK in the next six months.
This means that more companies are trying to migrate from traditional office to meta-universe office.
Make up for the "weak social" shortcomings of traditional cloud office
Since the popularity of remote work, functions such as clock-in, multi-person video meetings, screen sharing, and remote collaboration documents have gradually been implemented in many first-generation cloud office software. However, the common problem of many traditional office applications is that they do not pay attention to the office experience of employees, making employees feel serious, rigid and rigid.
In the "2021-2022 Metaverses Report - Avatar and Manufacturing: Metaverse Coordinate Analysis" jointly released by Tencent News and the Department of Journalism and Communication of Fudan University, it is mentioned that "the core difference between the metaverse 2.0 era and the 3.0 era lies in the evolution from 'avatar' to 'twin'. ”
In the metaverse of the "avatar" era, human beings only have their own fragmented identities in the virtual world and have not been able to integrate with the environment; while the virtual world in the "twin" era basically realizes the "replication" of the real world, and realizes the "immersion" experience of the office through scene restoration.
The current meta-universe office platform is on the way to gradually achieve "immersion".
In Ohio, for example, a translation company currently telecommutes on a metaverstem app called Immersed, where founder Jeff Weizer communicates daily with colleagues in Argentina and Ireland. On this platform, employees can set their own 3D avatars, including skin color, clothing, accessories, and brainstorm with colleagues in office spaces with similar graffiti and greenery decorations as offline.
Employees and bosses at the Ohio Translation Company are in the app "Immersed."
In such a meta-universe office platform, as long as Jeff is close to the surrounding company employees, what he says can be heard by him/her, and in the scene, he cannot hear each other's voices, which is highly consistent with the auditory experience in the offline scene; when he is close to the sofa or a chair, the system will automatically arrange for him to "sit down". This is the same as the offline office experience.
In fact, whether it is Jeff's translation company, or Decentraland, Meta's Horizon Workrooms, etc., virtual 3D images, visual experiences of realistic office environments and office communication auditory feelings are all common features of the current meta-universe office platform. This increases the fun and immersion of work compared to the cloud office 1.0 era.
It is worth noting that the more core value of the office in the metaverse is to make up for the "weak social" shortcomings that traditional cloud office applications cannot solve.
Previously, before Huadong Technology built the meta-universe office platform, its employees found that these applications lacked "weak social" scenarios such as small talk when using the traditional cloud office platform, that is, the pantry, the elevator room, and the water dispenser in front of the conversation scene.
In addition to the stereotypical punch card and video conferencing, the simulated pantry communication cannot be realized in cloud office 1.0, because online office 1.0 is essentially composed of countless information islands, which mechanically integrates a number of single office software such as language, text, transmission, and sharing, but does not form a smooth communication closed loop.
"And many times, this kind of weak social networking will bring a lot of brainstorming to employees, but it is indispensable in terms of work innovation." Jiang Minqiu, the founder of Huadong Technology, said in an interview with Titanium Media App.
Therefore, in the ARK meta-universe office platform employees' working mode display video, when everyone starts to take a tea break and eat, they will also move their avatars in the meta-universe building to the pantry and restaurant, and other employees will know each other's current working status, and then chat with the small partners who relax here, so that the weak social network offline is also restored to the online.
The "weak social" scenario of the ARK meta-universe office platform
Under this atmosphere, weak social interaction will occur naturally, restoring the sense of situation of offline accidental interaction.
In the formal meeting scenario offline, there is also a general weak social network.
Microsoft CEO Satya once lamented in an interview with harvard business review, "In the midst of the epidemic, people will have stronger relationships with strong relationships, and weak relationships will be weaker." This observation may be due to the fact that in traditional social tools, friends who have recently communicated will be displayed at the top of the chat interface, and in the preference for social information disclosure, weak relationship people do not have an advantage online.
Therefore, the next step of Microsoft's reform is to make this weak relationship stronger through software tools - when clicking on the profile picture of colleagues in the meta-universe office, the CEO can enter the participant's rich profile interface to view their personal information such as LinkedIn, as well as the work they are working on, documents, etc., without switching the window interface.
The creation of this weak social network is exactly the online office model change that many metaverse office pioneers are currently trying to achieve.
The commercial promise of virtual office real estate
It is precisely because the meta-universe office has an immersive and interesting experience, and more importantly, it has the characteristics and potential to break the "weak social" of the cloud office 1.0 era, therefore, the establishment of some meta-universe office platforms has been favored by many Internet and emerging technology companies.
However, for a company, does working on the metacosm outweigh the disadvantages, or if it does not have the ability to build on-chain plots, can it obtain greater operating income by leasing land/office buildings? This is still a topic of constant controversy in the metaverse and remote work.
The first is the issue of confirming rights. If the real estate of meta-universe office is based on the blockchain system, that is, its value is unique, ensuring the certainty of the property owner's property right or operating right, then first of all, meta-universe real estate has been guaranteed in value confirmation.
Then there is the issue of efficiency. It is worth noting that the meta-universe's 3D world office concept, just from the perspective of improving the office efficiency between employees, how much utility can be brought, there is no specific data support. According to a survey by YouGov, a British market research agency, 43% of employees believe that employers do not have enough expertise to work in the metacosmic environment; 59% of employees believe that employers have not yet invested enough in the IT field to maximize work efficiency.
Therefore, it is no wonder that professionals will focus more on the business model changes that the metacosm itself can bring - the real estate model and the advertising model.
The real estate model is not unfamiliar in the Internet world. As early as 20 years ago, on simulation games such as Second Life, there were users who bought a lot of virtual land on it through native currency and earned more than a million dollars by building houses for sale.
The nature of this income is similar to the current corporate real estate on Decentraland - when more players on a piece of land on the chain gradually flock to it, the virtual lot generates its own traffic, the house price rises, and the businesses working here will receive more attention.
For example, at present, "Pac-Man" development company Atari will build a chain in Decentraland las Vegas, and Mediahub also spent two days on the platform to build its own meta-universe office building, which are the windows for enterprise 3D self-presentation. In the office building that Mediahub has built on the metaverse, the role of the first floor is to introduce visitors to the company and clarify the company's mission.
Image credit@Courtesy of Mediahub
When mediahub's building land price in the metacosmation rises, the company can also lease the building it built to other companies as a second landlord to obtain rent.
As reported by the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily", the real estate price of the meta-universe is based on the expectation of continuous growth, once no new players enter the "drumming and passing flowers" continuous transaction, then the value of the "virtual property" in the hands of investors may become worthless. It can be said that the transaction logic and value logic of online real estate are comparable to those offline.
The second business model of the metacostem office building, which is also highly consistent with the offline and early era of the Internet, is the traffic logic built because of the principle of attention.
In the era of offline advertising, bus and subway station signs, highway billboards, etc. seized the minds of users; since twenty years ago, banners have been placed at high prices on web pages, which is a two-dimensional version of the commercial advertising mode initially created by the meta-universe.
Mediahub executive Edmonds previously said in a public interview that they are already collaborating with some artists to set up artworks in the offices of the metaverse to help them complete the first NFT launch.
In the future, Meta-Universe Office is believed to have many functions in terms of commercial display, multi-dimensional advertising and product sales: car companies can display new models in the twin virtual office space, home furnishing companies can display new furniture, and allow users to experience the latest products more deeply and multi-sensory.
"For example, in the future, CGV, a film operation company that will enter our platform, in addition to renting their office floors, we will also help them build a virtual theater, which can be used by users to consume the products in the CGV movie library in the virtual theater." This immersive experience for users is a typical feature that helps some experiential products sell. Jiang Minqiu of Huadong Technology said.
Of course, it is worth being wary that at present, the meta-universe virtual real estate may be given too high financial value.
The improvement of the office efficiency of the meta-universe also requires more innovative scene design online, more open applications that break the information island, and indispensable underlying technical support.
However, it is foreseeable that in the near future, with the further popularization of VR, AR and other hardware, more immersive and interesting meta-universe office scenes can be realized on different terminals, the value potential of "weak social" will be further released, and the CBD world of the meta-universe will have a broader commercial space with the entry of more enterprises. (This article was first published on the Titanium Media App, and the author |.) Tao Tao)
Resources:
“What’s remote work like in the metaverse? These companies are building the tools to make it possible”，Euronews；
"The Metacosm rises a "leasing business", the company built an office building in two days", Sheryl Estrada, Fortune.