Today, the most likely answer to this question is: Tencent and China.
Editor's Note
In the view of Matthew Bauer, the world's earliest creator of the metaverse concept, the company closest in the world to creating the metacosm is not Roblox, the first public company to claim to plan to build a metacosm, nor Facebook, which changed its name to Meta Platforms to express its belief in metaverse, but Tencent, which is still very low-key to the metacosm. Similarly, who is most likely to build the metacosm of the country is Also China, and why is Matthew Bauer so optimistic about the role of Chinese and Chinese companies in the metacosm? This article is excerpted from the preface to the Chinese edition of Metaverse Changes Everything.
In 2020, someone on a popular podcast in the United States asked me, "Who's closest to the metaverse today?" I replied that the answer was "simple" — not Fortnite, Minecraft or Roblox, but China's Tencent.
After a few years, I'm often asked if my perspective has changed. By this time, Roblox had become a household name and popular AAA game. Roblox was also the first public company to announce plans to build a metacosm, and considers itself far ahead of its strongest competitors in millions of interconnected virtual worlds.
Meanwhile, Facebook changed its name to Meta Platforms to express its belief in metaversms, as if spending more than $10 billion a year on metaverse software, hardware and ecosystems isn't enough to show determination. Also, in announcing the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the largest tech giant in history, Microsoft said Activision Blizzard would "provide building blocks for the virtual world."
In addition, Epic Games is spending more time building the metaverse than any other company, and its flagship game, Fortnite, and the game engine Unreal, are constantly blurring the boundaries between entertainment, physical, and virtual worlds.
Today, who is most likely to construct a metacosm
I'm hopeful about the future because I believe the answer to "who is closest to the metacosm today" can always be changed. Identity actors such as consumers, developers, and governments can still influence who will be the leaders in the metaverse, and how those leaders will lead the metaverse. I also believe that metacosmities will be born with the help of many different companies, both cooperative and competitive. There is more than one winner, and there is no "ultimate version" of the metaverse.
But if we ask a different way, such as "Who is most likely to build the metacosm" or "Who will achieve the metacosm version that will best fit our imagination and best allow us to reach our full potential", I believe the most likely answer is: China.
There are many reasons why China may be leading the way in the metaverse. First, payment networks and technology are the foundation of the modern economy. Digital payment systems in China are more pervasive, powerful, easier to use, and more integrated and affordable than digital payment systems in much of the world. In short, the metacosm means that people's work, life, leisure, friendship, wealth, happiness, identity, and time will continue to increase in the virtual world. Platforms such as WeChat, Bilibili, Pinduoduo, and Douyin have always been the envy of big Western technology companies because they have achieved a seamless integration of digital technology with the real world.
Games will be at the forefront of metaversal development, and no country will have a game industry growing faster than China. In the past 10 years, Chinese game developers such as Mihayou, NetEase and Tencent Tianmei have developed world-class game engines, IP and digital business models.
Second, China is building 5G infrastructure with far more investment than the United States and other countries and regions in the world. To build a metaverse, full coverage, low latency, high capacity, and affordable Internet connectivity are prerequisites. This will affect how "real" the virtual world can be, who has the ability to participate in it, and even when the metacosm will be realized. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are also areas that exemplify China's R&D prowess, and these two technologies are essential for importing data into the metacosm and facilitating the interconnection between different worlds and technologies.
However, while constructing the metacosm requires extraordinary technological achievement, it is more important to recognize that the biggest challenges are often related to humanity itself.
Key challenges related to people
The metacosm is premised on "interoperability". It is a network of different virtual worlds, technologies, and services that can exchange information between each other, and they trust each other to modify that information, as well as the modification of information by individual users in these virtual worlds. But interoperability requires the consent of all participants and the use of specific technical standards, sharing their private data, and open proprietary systems. This is actually difficult because most companies don't like sharing data or making technical decisions based on the needs of others. In most cases, they would rather optimize their short-term profits than invest in collective success.
So if we have reason to doubt the potential of the metacosm in Western countries, then the reason is that many tech giants will resist interoperability. Each of these companies knows that if they work together, they can build a more prosperous future. The global and decentralized Internet is proof of that. However, these companies and their executives may fear that they will lose control or profits if they work with competitors. There are also companies that still want to build the metaverse independently, or at least have a large portion of control of it. In contrast, China has a better chance of building a truly interoperable metacosm, a metacosm built by all of China's citizens and companies in cooperation, and a metacosm that in turn can meet its needs.
Today, there is still uncertainty about many aspects of the metaverse, such as which "interoperable formats" the metaverse will use, how the "interoperability protocol" will be designed, and how various business models and nurture user behavior in the "metacosmic economy" will be constructed. Thus, fueled by the need for good intentions, a more comprehensive but not so compelling, yet vibrant metaverse could emerge.
Based on the above, the book "Metaverse Changes Everything" was published in China, and I feel very excited. I very much hope that the metaverse will become an eternal force. It can bring us closer together while improving access to education, health care, and economic development, and driving the next phase of the internet.
This book was written to advance this goal. In this book, I summarize many important lessons learned from the literature related to the metaverse of the 20th century, as well as the efforts made by various circles to build the metacosm over the past 50 years. At the same time, I reviewed and reflected on the mistakes we made in the past, the limitations we faced, the technologies we needed, and explored why it was so important to ensure that the metaverse, the "inheritor" of the Internet, truly met our expectations, and why I wished we could do it.
Metaverse Changes Everything
Author: Matthew Ball
Translators: Cen Gelan, Zhao Aobo, Wang Xiaotong
Publisher: Zhanlu Culture | Zhejiang Education Publishing House
| Matthew Bauer
Editor| Peng Ren
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