The time node of the metaverse conference is still to re-understand and define the metacosm.
At the beginning of 2022, the development of the meta-universe was elevated to a national strategy for the first time and was written into the local "14th Five-Year Plan" industrial planning.
In the eyes of most people, the metacosm is probably the concept of the game, how can it become a national strategy, in fact, it is not as simple as imagined.
The term metaverse was born in 1992 in the science fiction novel Avalanche, and in October 2021, Facebook announced that it had officially changed its name to Metaverse, a name derived from metaverse, indicating the company's determination to lay out metaverses and really igniting the concept.
The metacosm can be simply understood as a virtual world parallel to reality, in which people can do anything that can be done in real life, such as socializing, entertainment, etc. The scenes from the movies "Ready Player One" and "The Matrix" are perfectly presented, but the realization of the metaverse requires augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), three-dimensional technology (3D), artificial intelligence (AI) and other technical support.
However, the application of the metaverse is not limited to games, because the game is the first field to be applied, and the metacosm can also be widely applied to education, medical care, industry and even government affairs, which can greatly reduce related costs, promote the development of the industry, and basically activate the entire economic industry chain. So why include it in the national strategy.
Although the metaverse seems to be widely used, it is currently subject to the requirements of the underlying technology and equipment and supervision, and there are still not many at the application level, mainly in the upstream (underlying technology) NFT, the midstream (device) VR/AR, and the downstream games and virtual people began to import and amplify. These directions are highlighted below.
First, the NFT aspect.
NFT, also known as "non-homogeneous token", is a kind of encrypted digital proof of rights and interests structured on blockchain technology, which can map physical assets such as physical collectibles and virtual assets such as images, music, and game props.
In March 2021, artist Beeple's NFTs were sold at Christie's for $69.3 million, and NFTs gradually entered the public eye, with record sales like "cryptopunk" avatars and "boring ape" avatars.
However, at present, the mainland has not completely liberalized the NFT, and there are three main factors.
One is the possibility of speculation risk; the other is that the mainland has strict restrictions on the exchange platform, if the NFT is identified as a financial product, then there must be a corresponding exchange transaction; the other is that the legal issues of NFT confirmation and copyright protection are not clear.
In fact, Lao Zhang believes that it is still to avoid speculation and money laundering. The price of virtual things cannot be measured, resulting in large funds being able to quickly reverse.
For example, Bo Rui Communication is currently the only company in China facing the digital cultural property rights exchange, holding 45% of the equity of Chengdu Cultural Property Exchange Co., Ltd. Another example is Visual China, where the company empowers creators in various aspects such as technology and operations.
Second, in terms of VR/AR, this piece is also the fastest place to put it at present.
AR and VR both provide basic equipment support for the metaverse, in contrast, VR belongs to virtual reality, display technology is easier to achieve, so the current VR penetration rate is relatively high, but VR can not be associated with the real world, the future may be based on home game entertainment.
In 2021, the global AR/VR headset shipments reached 11.23 million units, an increase of 92.1% year-on-year, of which vr headset shipments reached 10.95 million units, breaking through the important inflection point of the industry with annual shipments of 10 million units, and it is expected that in 2022, the global VR headset shipments will be 15.73 million units, an increase of 43.6% year-on-year.
Domestic VR/AR glasses, is still in its infancy, although the launch of huawei VR Glass, Rokid AR Glass and other good products, but with foreign giants Meta, Microsoft and other companies to develop products there is still a big gap.
In the middle of the equipment, the participation of domestic manufacturers is still relatively high, the most typical like Goertek shares, in 2016, Goertek began to supply Sony and Facebook's Oculus exclusive supply, the two with an absolute share almost monopolized the global VR/AR machine market. In July 2020, Goertek took the large order of Facebook's Quest2 device.
In addition, like crystal optoelectronics also has a layout, the company into the Israeli AR glasses developer Lumus, in the AR glasses program technology, focusing on the layout of reflected optical waveguides, diffracted optical waveguides and Birdbath these three technical paths.
Third, games and virtual people.
The product form of the game is also highly similar to the metaverse, which naturally has a virtual scene and the virtual identity of the player, so the game is the initial and most active application scenario of the metaverse immersive experience, and it is the fastest and deepest place for capital and market intervention.
But although some devices can currently achieve some of the functions of metaverse games, but the real metaverse game is still just a beautiful dream, the reason is that VR/AR and other wearable devices and somatosensory clothing still have technical problems, at present, it has not yet been able to break through, it is still very difficult to achieve a game like "Ready Player One" and "Out of Control Player", and at present, our interaction with the virtual world is still stuck on the computer side, the host side or the mobile end, and can not achieve a unified experience of human senses such as vision, touch, smell and taste.
Basically all the game companies in China are in the layout, like Tom Cat, the company uses AR expansion technology in its game "My Tom Cat", so that the avatar of Tom Cat can be presented in the real scene. Like 37 Interactive Entertainment, the company has invested in archiact, a high-quality VR content developer, to lay out the content ecology.
Another downstream application is the virtual person, in simple terms, the virtual person is to make the user feel the digital image of the personality. At present, virtual people can play a variety of roles, including virtual anchors, virtual idols, virtual journalists, virtual assistants, virtual customer service and so on.
For example, in November 2021, Bilibili's total revenue from virtual anchors reached 54.66 million yuan, the number of payers reached 255,000, and the first virtual anchor "Jiale Carol" set a single monthly revenue of 2.14 million yuan.
Like Mango Super Media, Mango TV launched the first virtual host "YAOYAO" in September 2021; like BlueFocus, the company is a virtual person marketing leader, building a whole industry chain of marketing services, and establishing a wholly-owned subsidiary of "Blue Universe Digital Technology".
At present, the meta-universe is in the industry introduction period, the uncertainty of technology and the company's performance have not been greatly released, and the investment income is also risky. Make good investment expectations.
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Source: Flying Whale Research