Computing is due for a new platform, and Meta believes it will be the metaverse.
The last big innovation was the iPhone in 2007, and they come about every 15 years, as Ian Edwards, Meta’s global connections planning director, said during the House of Instagram event during British Beauty Week, according to Cosmetics Design Europe.
“While 2022 is not the year of the metaverse, like 2007 was not the year of the iPhone, we believe it is the start of the beginning,” Edwards said. “[This year] is the beginning of the change not the change itself, and that is really, really important context.”
Which is a reasonable point to make, given just how much grief Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, got for a very graphically unimpressive “selfie” last month.
See also: Meta Metaverse Weekly: Zuckerberg Shows off Less Terrible Graphics
But change, Edwards said, is coming. It will take the form of the metaverse, he added, because it solves the problems of its predecessors.
“Anyone with actual experience in [virtual reality] will know you feel so much more present, being able to dive into virtual spaces,” Grace Kao, head of global business marketing for Instagram, said at the event, per the report. “You’ll be able to hang out with anyone, anywhere, and feel like we are present.”
You will, she predicted, “increasingly be able to feel like we are physically in a live space, where the event is happening, with other people all at different locations.”
More importantly, she added, identity will be “a really important part of the metaverse” for both individuals and brands, for whom it is “a big opportunity … How you show up is really important and we’re opening up opportunities for brands to be a part of this space.”
That is why Meta is investing a lot of resources into avatars, she added. Given the “dead-eyed” comments about Zuckerberg’s infamous selfie, that’s probably a good thing.
Going Home
Meta is also building out the spaces that people can create for their (still legless) avatars in its Horizon Worlds virtual reality (VR) gaming space/proto-metaverse.
The company began a limited rollout of personal space in June, Meta said in a Sept. 15 release, with expansions planned in the coming weeks.
“Much like your home in the physical world, you set the culture of your personal space when you invite others to join you there,” the company said. “You decide who gets an invite, and your invited guests won’t have access to your personal space when you’re not there. You’ll also be able to set rules for people to follow and take action based on those rules as you see fit — like muting or removing someone from your personal space.”
Nor will followers be able to tell when an avatar is in its personal space.
Consolidating Control
Meanwhile, VR developers are increasingly worried about what they see as Meta’s determination to “consolidate control of the virtual reality developer ecosystem,” The Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, reported on Wednesday (Sept. 14).
That runs the gamut from imposing “overly strict requirements” for getting VR games into its Horizon Worlds store to an “acquisition spree” of VR development firms and top developers that is making it hard to compete.
They’re not alone. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Meta in July, saying its attempt to acquire VR company Within Unlimited would move the social media giant “one step closer to its ultimate goal of owning the entire ‘Metaverse.’”
Read more: Judge to Hear FTC Case on Meta Takeover of VR Firm in December
“The challenge is that they’ve kind of built this moat of content where if a developer wants to develop for VR, they go to [Meta] first because that’s the most economically viable platform,” said Anshel Sag, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, according to the Post.
Euro Vision
European Union Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote in a Sept. 14 blog post that “not one but many metaverses are being developed.”
The “many metaverses” that are being developed “offers possibilities for people to interact in completely innovative ways,” he said. “Not only for entertainment purposes, but also to work together, develop artistic creativity, do real-life simulations aimed at medical interventions, cultural preservation, environmental protection or disaster prevention and a lot more.”
Operating in real time, these new “public ‘squares’… must embed European values from the outset,” Breton said. “People should feel as safe in the virtual worlds as they do in the real one.”
To that end, the European Commission intends “to shape from the outset the development of truly safe and thriving metaverses” so that it does “not witness a new Wild West or new private monopolies.”
He added that “private metaverses should develop based on interoperable standards and no single private player should hold the key to the public square or set its terms and conditions.”
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