The Metaverse Is Dead. Long Live The Metaverse!

Long Live the Metaverse: A New Chapter in Virtual Worlds

Before the rise of generative artificial intelligence, the hottest buzzword in tech was the "metaverse". Everyone, from startups to social media giants and legacy brands was rushing to embrace the idea of virtual worlds that were widely perceived to become the next big thing in tech. 

So what happened? These days, the metaverse has quietly disappeared over the horizon, and is very rarely mentioned by technology executives or leading media publications anymore, despite once being the hottest topic on their lips. 

The hype around the metaverse was exactly that, but the fact it has now quietened down does not mean that the technology is dead and buried. Rather, what the metaverse is experiencing now is a natural part of Gartner Inc.'s renowned "hype cycle" for new technologies, which become the talk of the town when they first explode onto the scene, before the fanfare dies down and people start working out how to actually get value out of it. 

While the buzz around generative AI has subdued talk of the metaverse for now, there are reasons to think that we could soon see the golden age of virtual worlds in the coming years. 

What is the metaverse?

Proponents of the metaverse pitch it as the next evolution of digital interaction, where people will come together and socialize, learn and conduct business in three-dimensional virtual realms that break down geographic barriers. Within the metaverse, users can explore digital cities, utilize digital objects, buy and sell virtual land, construct buildings, show off art, engage in commerce, socialize with friends and more. In fact, short of making babies, there's very little one can do in the real world that cannot be replicated in a digital environment.  

Metaverse users are represented by digital avatars, which they can customize to reflect their appearance and personality. These virtual worlds are best experienced with VR headsets and goggles or augmented reality devices, but they can also be accessed via smartphones and PCs. 

The metaverse is not a standalone technology, and it is increasingly converging with AI and blockchain to power automation, interactions, ownership of digital land and items, and monetization. 

Where did the metaverse go? 

If you had listened to Mark Zuckerberg a few years ago, you'd have imagined that everybody might be living double lives in the metaverse by now, but that kind of reality has not yet transpired. The Facebook founder was one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the metaverse, even going as far as to rebrand his company as "Meta Platforms" in his effort to position itself as the center of this new world. 

Zuckerberg wasn't alone, with big brands like Nike, Gucci and Adidas all exploring metaverse-related concepts such as digital wearables, virtual fashion shows and stores where people could buy branded digital items. But the hype around these innovations turned out to be short-lived. While Meta invested billions into metaverse development, it has so far had very little to show for it in terms of profits. Part of the reason for this is due to the high costs of hardware such as VR headsets and concerns around user privacy in virtual worlds, which helped to curtail excitement in the technology. 

Exploring The Metaverse Today

While the hype has died down, this may actually prove to be a good thing, for it has allowed those who are serious about the idea to knuckle-down and focus on building applications that can provide genuine value to metaverse users in areas such as education, gaming, entertainment, retail and healthcare. 

Education:

Imagine a virtual classroom, populated by students from all four corners of the globe. The students are energized by tales of Greek legends, with virtual depictions of the powerful God of the Sky, Zeus and his legendary son Hercules, known for his immense strength. 

Suddenly, a timeline appears on the classroom floor, allowing the students to walk from the present backwards in time to the past, where they encounter a new reality. They enter a world of Greek culture against a backdrop of ancient Athens and its stunning acropolis, with a busy marketplace where traders are hawking goods such as food stuffs and swords. They can explore, they can interact, they can ponder and they can learn. 

This is the basic concept of ICB Verse, a groundbreaking metaverse city that's focused on providing immersive, interactive learning experiences driven by AI and blockchain. Visitors can purchase NFTs to attend virtual classes taught by world-famous professors and engage with AI-powered clones of some of the smartest teachers in existence -- the likes of Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci and the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It's an example of how the metaverse will transform education into an engaging, interactive adventure. 

Gaming: 

The gaming industry was one of the earliest drivers of metaverse hype, and it continues to be one of its most successful use cases, enabling more immersive experiences and providing more social interactions for gamers. 

It's an idea that isn't going away. Fortune forecasts metaverse gaming to become a $168 billion market by 2030, pointing to examples such as Roblux and Fortnite, which have already built metaverse-style experiences on their platforms. Moreover, blockchain-based virtual worlds such as Decentraland and The Sandbox continue to attract users, enticing them with the prospect of revenue-generating activities like gambling and buying and selling virtual land. 

Entertainment:

The immersive nature of the metaverse continues to hold promise for the entertainment industry, enabling people to enjoy social experiences without leaving the comfort of their homes. By investing in VR and AR devices, users can enjoy virtual concerts that seem almost as real as the physical experience of attending such an event, and it's an idea that's catching on with artists like Ariana Grande, Lil Nas X and Justin Bieber. 

The metaverse also provides a platform for innovative outreach, such as Frito-Lay's 2022 FIFA World Cup "Pass the Ball Challenge". With this, football fans could enter the metaverse, upload their photos to a digital soccer ball and engage in various games and trivia contests to win prizes such as NFTs and merchandise. 

Retail:

A more compelling application may be in retail, where brands can explore new ways to engage with customers and sell their products. For instance, the Letsy app uses 3D product visualization tools that enable online shoppers to virtually try on various outfits, clothes and accessories and see how they will look when wearing them to aid in their shopping decisions. 

With virtual products, NFTs and personalized avatars, retailers can potentially create new revenue streams beyond physical walk-ins and online sales. The metaverse can also help retailers to expand globally and reach more customers, without establishing a physical presence in new markets. For instance, Nike's metaverse world NIKELAND opens its doors to the entire world, enabling anyone to explore and try on virtual goods and play games to earn prizes and discounts on its products. 

Healthcare: 

We can't talk about the metaverse without mentioning its progress in the healthcare industry either. Virtual realities can revolutionize the way people access medical treatment, with virtual consultations one of the most obvious applications that's already getting traction. These days, it's becoming quite common for some patients to book a virtual consultation with their doctor, where they can discuss their ailments and how their treatment and rehabilitation is progressing without being physically present. 

The Dubai-based healthcare provider Medcare is one of the leading innovators in this area, having recently established a metaverse-based healthcare facility that anyone can visit to consult with its medical professionals. 

The metaverse is also opening the doors to concepts such as remote surgery, where specialists can operate on patients who are thousands of kilometers away by controlling robotic instruments to carry out complex procedures. 

The Metaverse Lives

The next time that someone tells you the metaverse is dead, you may want to correct them. The truth is that the metaverse is very much alive, and innovators in numerous industries are working hard to ensure it will become a big part of our future. 

We won't spend all of our lives in the metaverse, but the power of the applications we've explored in this article suggests that virtual worlds will definitely have their place, due to the way they expand access to education and healthcare and provide opportunities for us to explore new products and services we cannot obtain in the physical world.  

Lest we forget that when the internet first arrived in the early 1990s, many people dismissed it as a passing fad. What they didn't see was that computing devices would become much smaller and more affordable, making the world's information accessible to everyone and enabling everyone to communicate on a global scale. Similarly, the metaverse has just as much potential to change the way people interact.