In our increasingly technology focused society there’s always a new buzzword pertaining to some breakthrough innovation doing the rounds. Over the past few years, talk of social media Web 2.0 and “the cloud” has rapidly given way to blockchain, NFTs and, most recently, the metaverse. While it’s easy to get swept up in the fervor of speculation around these new trends, taking a longer view of the situation makes it clear that they’re but the latest development in a long term process. That process relates to how we’re increasingly opting to structure our lives, communicate, seek entertainment and do our shopping entirely online. With also 90% of the global population now smartphone owners, the convenience and accessibility offered by online platforms is rapidly outpacing anything traditional sectors can offer in competition. In this article we’re going to take a look at the metaverse, unpack what it is exactly, and draw a through line to it from the earliest days of internet commerce, highlighting that this novel term underlies an aspiration that has been at the heart of the commercial internet project this whole time.
Table of Contents
What is the Metaverse?
The first thing most people would have heard of the metaverse came by way of Facebook’s much publicized rebranding as Meta. With that move it unveiled some impressive promotional media that sought to outline their specific vision for the metaverse. This is not something new for Mark Zuckerberg’s $565 billion social media powerhouse. The company acquired virtual reality pioneers Oculus VR back in 2014 with a long term plan to integrate VR technology into Facebook’s suite of services. But what is a metaverse exactly? The truth is that it’s difficult to define, especially since many organizations, from Google and Microsoft, to gaming platforms like Roblox are all using the term for projects they’re working on. A working definition could be that the metaverse is a virtual space for people to collaborate, interact, shop and play. In truth, it’s a 21st century rebrand of what was once called cyberspace.
Flexibility & Choice
The pivot towards online oriented platforms we’ve witnessed over the years offers key advantages in the form of choice. A physical environment such as a brick-and-mortar casino is always going to be constrained by a range of factors. Among them are its limitation by the size of its premises, meaning it cannot expand indefinitely in response to shifting or growing consumer demand. Furthermore it is unable to diversify its offerings quickly, or cater easily to niche interests. This is in stark contrast to reputable online gaming platforms that can offer a host of novel variants of blackjack and other popular casino games without needing to invest in more gaming tables or real estate first. Elsewhere, we find a similar story when we compare and contrast some of the largest and most successful physical retail stores, such as Walmart, with the seemingly unlimited infrastructure of its rival Amazon.
The Time is Right
Online platforms have been moving towards the ideal of virtual spaces since the earliest days of the internet. Our technologies increasingly seek to become more flexible and immersive, and the real stumbling block holding the metaverse project back thus far has been reliable and affordable VR hardware. Ecommerce platforms have seen this shift coming a long way off, and have been experimenting with models of how online shopping in such a space may look, arguably with mixed results. While Meta’s idea of the metaverse isn’t the only show in town, at present it represents the most fully realized example of what web browsing in a 3D environment will look like.
The Future
With major brands such as Nike now opening flagship stores in the metaverse geared towards selling NFT versions of their popular sneakers, the wave of commercial interests throwing their lot in with this novel frontier is on the verge of reaching a decisive tipping point. Whether such trends will further the decline of the high street is hard to say, but what we do know is that the metaverse represents the fulfilment of something a long time coming, and is no flash in the pan.
