Metaverse
Last updated
Last updated
Metaverse is a compound word of meta, meaning fictitious and abstract, and universe, meaning the real world. In the online 3D virtual world, individuals realized in the form of avatars can communicate with each other, earn or spend money, enjoy play, and continue real-life activities such as performing productive work. Currently, it is widely used in games, entertainment, and business-to-business environments, such as replicating daily activities in virtual space.
Metaverse is gradually expanding in line with the non-face-to-face environment caused by the corona pandemic and the development of 5G (5th generation) mobile communication technology. Among them, 5G technology is playing the most important bridge role in helping the growth of the metaverse market. The reason is that services such as real-time streaming, autonomous driving, and IoT (Internet of Things) that were not easy before can be realized through ultra-low latency, ultra-wideband, and ultra-connection. In addition, the development of AI (artificial intelligence) and big data is also making the world of the metaverse more concrete. In addition, blockchain technology is being evaluated as a tool to further solidify the connection between the real and virtual worlds.
The expansion of the metaverse industry is projected through several market studies. The metaverse market is expected to reach $280 billion (about KRW 315 trillion) by 2025 as a result of the forecast of global market research firm Strategy Analytics. In addition, according to the PWC analysis, it is expected to be about 1.54 trillion dollars in 2030. Metaverse market size
Major tech companies are all at once defining metaverse as a new opportunity for the future, developing and introducing various platforms and products.
Facebook, which changed the company name to “Meta”, has a vision of upgrading the platform itself to Metaverse. . It is combining VR and AR technologies with the world's largest social platform, and even combining its own currency. The key axis is an important axis for realizing the future through Oculus, a VR device company that Facebook acquired for $2.3 billion in 2014.
The core of Microsoft's Metaverse strategy is Teams, a collaboration platform. Here, MS' metaverse vision was further refined by introducing 'Messi for Teams', which enables realistic meetings in a virtual environment with personalized avatars without special equipment.
Among them, the most representative metaverse platform is Roblox, an American online game company. Roblox is a game platform based on the concept of a virtual world. Roblox is a Lego-shaped personal avatar that allows you to enjoy games, chat and call between users, and even create your own games. As of the end of last year, Roblox had 32.6 million daily active users, and 50 million games were created within Roblox. Accordingly, Roblox made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2021, and became a company with a market capitalization of 45.2 billion dollars (about 51.32 trillion won) upon listing.
In Korea, 'ZEPETO', an augmented reality (AR) based 3D avatar app developed by Naver, is rapidly growing among teenagers as a platform that creates avatars and virtual worlds using facial recognition and AR. The number of global subscribers of ZEPETO exceeded 200 million as of February.
Behind the splendid growth of the metaverse market, there is a dark shadow of proof of ownership, the absence of an integrated platform for virtual reality and metaverse, and an unreasonable content revenue structure. When the value of goods traded in the market increases, proof of ownership of the item is required. In addition, there is still a lack of a proper integrated platform that can bring together virtual reality users and metaverse contents. In addition to this, in addition to content sales, developers can make profits by utilizing the economic ecosystem configured in the metaverse, so attractive content must be abundantly supplied to the market.
