The metaverse is being placed by tech companies as an auspicious future trend, relying on sophisticated technologies and products to create a new reality in tomorrow's world. At the heart of the developments AI creates lucrative worlds of experience and consumption. Metaverse, blockchain, cryptocurrencies and NFTs in Web 3.0 - which technologies hide behind this jungle of terms?
No longer just a quirk of the tech scene, Metaverse is positioning itself to be a mega hype and attracts companies from a wide range of industries hoping for the early mover bonus and dreaming of big growth. The prospect of economic success is enormous: according to estimates by the Harvard Business Review, AI will bring an additional 13 trillion US dollars to the global economy between 2020 and 2030. No wonder leading internet and gaming companies are spending billions to drive this progress. And technology companies like Meta are developing supercomputers at breakneck speed that will play a significant role in the development of the next-generation AI models. This will also take marketing on a journey into the future.
"For those interested in technology, it’s pure fascination; for sceptics, a dystopian perspective of the future!"
But what is the Metaverse anyway? For those interested in technology, it’s pure fascination; for sceptics, a dystopian perspective of the future! The term actually comes from the sci-fi novel "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson (1992) and means a digital alternative to the physical world. A kind of parallel world that is created by the three-dimensional extension of the physical world and is made up of reality and virtuality. An interactive world that you can design yourself. To move around in it, avatars become key figures with which this new space becomes walkable - with technical gadgets like gloves, headsets or glasses ready for immersive experiences and monetizable applications. And of course for interaction with each other.
Metaverse offers AI, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) a platform to connect with the workings of social networks and make them a direct, borderless experience. The new internet is an embodied internet, in which virtually everything we do on the screen today becomes possible in 3D. In many different areas of everyday life, from leisure to work. This makes virtual live events such as a joint concert, a visit on the other side of the world or group meetings in digital space possible. For this new, third generation of the web, Web 3.0, the mobile network 5G makes virtual solutions realized in real time.
This means that the Internet of Things, i.e. the linking of physical objects with the virtual world, is also advancing at a rapid pace. The internet of the future is scaling exponentially and brings a gigantic global network for the exchange of data between devices, systems and people, equipped with software and sensors, in far-reaching applications, from commercial to industrial.
"In the Metaverse, a new economic space of its own is being created in which companies and individuals can act, work, shop and sell - and of course also invest."
In this world, AI is an everyday business reality on which the Metaverse projects are based. Cryptocurrencies, backed by blockchain technologies, and NFTs characterize this new economic sector. Digital money is a popular speculative asset that requires a high level of market understanding. To achieve successful crypto investments, AI and machine learning are used and technology-driven tools are employed. They are designed to provide sentiment analysis, make more accurate predictions - even automated trading.
There are currently over 4,000 cryptocurrencies. And the trend is rising. The best known is Bitcoin, the first on the market. The idea of a decentralized currency that functions independently of controlling central authorities such as traditional banks, is a key feature of the crypto scene and is built on the blockchain. Blockchain technology is a database mechanism that enables transparent data exchange within a network. Data is stored in blocks, which are all linked chronologically in a chain, but stored in a distributed manner. A network of servers in which many participants can share information is supposed to guarantee high security: Distributed in different locations around the world, they run independently but work together. A decentralized system that thus seeks to protect itself against hacker attacks, failures and fraud.
Companies and individuals can create NFTs for the sale of their products and services: a non-fungible token, i.e. a token for an asset in a digitized form. Basically the digital image of a real asset: The token has an assigned value - but one can also assign (tokenize) a certain function, real ../assets such as real estate or music rights and transfer associated rights and obligations to it. In this way, property or capital becomes digitally tradable.
Clearly, the web trends also open up new potential for us in marketing: many new forms of marketing will emerge, such as personalized customer interactions and completely new data sources, which we can use intensively for stronger customer loyalty. Whether the metaverse will actually become disruptively established outside the gaming scene or whether it will only turn out to be a bubble remains to be seen. In any case, the prerequisite for success is the willingness of users to spend their time outside of real reality with VR glasses in the online space.
At SPS MARKETING, we see ourselves as a B2B Experience Hub and have mastered the entire spectrum in industrial marketing for over 25 years - classic, digital and global. As ReFORMers, TransFORMers and PerFORMers, we work with our clients to implement exceptional concepts at high speed. You too can benefit from our wealth of experience and contact us for a no-obligation consultation!
