Sooner or later, we’re all going to pay attention to a New Internet

Dario Betti at The Mobile Ecosystem Forum explains why the Web 3.0 and the Metaverse are going to change the way we use the internet

 

If you clutch your pearls every time Microsoft updates Windows, this isn’t going to be an easy read. The Metaverse is coming, and it has the potential to change how we access and think about the internet.

 

The Metaverse is a virtual digital world where interconnected platforms replicate and improve real-life experiences or create new digital and hybrid services. Before you reach for those pearls, let’s take a step back.

 

In days of digital yore, I remember looking at some green text codes on a black monitor screen via a very noisy dial up modem. This early incarnation of the internet had hyperlinks that connected publicly available databases.

 

 

A new web is coming

A new internet is on the way and it will be less centralised, self-learning, and more open.

 

In the second half of the 1990s, along came web-browsers: graphical interfaces with pictures, colours, audio and eventually video. That is what we refer to nowadays as Web 1.0, a two-dimensional PC-screen interface, and nowadays more commonly a smartphone-based experience.

 

Then, in the mid-2010s, there was the arrival of Web 2.0 where user experience and participation, for instance through social networks, was emphasised. The web was not just a static repository of information but a platform to meet people and create content and services.

 

And now, Web 3.0 is emerging as a new concept for the future of the Internet. Much is still being debated of what the next iteration of cyberspace will be, but the focus seems to be on decentralisation, self-learning, and openness. These key concepts of the Internet will be given a boost by new technologies.

 

Blockchain and peer to peer networks are supposed to help decentralising the internet and balance the power of its intermediaries (read this as meaning that many are working to challenge the dominance of large technology companies such as Facebook or Google).  

 

Artificial Intelligence should support machine learning: your new internet will do some of the hard work in selecting and engaging with content automatically – this might be checking for fake news, translating content, summarising text.

 

The new level of openness should be provided by the connections of the Internet of Things with the Internet – IoT is usually separated services but webbed or folded with the Internet as a whole: more data from things, more services with the collective knowledge of sensors, cars, lights etc.

 

The Internet is trying to fix some of its current challenges: the large influence of big tech companies, the threat of ‘bad’, ‘too much’, or ‘too difficult to find’ information, as well as trying to make the IoT collect much more information from things not just people.

 

 

A new web to access the Internet

While web 3.0 looks at the what the Internet will do, references to the Metaverse usually touch on how people will experience the Internet. The Metaverse will move people from the two-dimensional experience of a web browser screen to a three-dimensional virtual world where people, businesses, services can create a new presence or identity.

 

You—technically, your ‘avatar’—would move in a life-like three-dimensional manner across the different virtual shops, offices, theatres, meeting places in the Metaverse. The avatar will be able to talk with others, listen to concerts, buy items, conduct meetings and work, all without the need to be physically anywhere in particular. In today’s web you can do the same things really, but not in the same way: you are still limited by a two-dimensional screen.

 

How will you navigate in these new worlds? Increasingly by voice assistants, rather than URL addresses, and by using using a Virtual Reality headset to experience a more immersive 3D experience. Even better, in future a hologram machine will project a fantasy world in your room.

 

Just as the frenzy of the “.com” era drove many to invest in new domains, the Metaverse is now challenging many to think how they can capitalise on the future trends of user experience. The interest in the Metaverse is high, but real examples of a 3D based internet experience are not here yet. Many are working on it right now though. 

 

The Moneyverse

Look at what other big players are doing, and it shows that the Metaverse is a big thing. Facebook has changed its corporate name in honour of the new trend. Microsoft’s CEO acknowledged that their latest and largest acquisition (the game maker Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion) was a side bet in games but also a bigger step towards the Metaverse, and the next internet.

 

Microsoft underplayed the internet at first and had to manage an expensive (and very successful) turnround.

 

Facebook was also too slow to pick up the mobile internet. It had to acquire emerging competitors such as WhatsApp and Instagram that were threatening to eclipse the social network via their mobile apps.

 

Facebook is looking for a new growth story too, as its core business enters a level of maturity and as user acquisition and usage of the social network is flattening.  

 

The history of these two companies shows something: they were slow to adapt to new technologies. Both companies seem to have learnt lessons, and do not want to miss the boat with the next evolution of the internet.

 

The list of companies offering a flavour of the Metaverse is growing. For example, Google is working on a Metaverse updated version of its interactive glasses. And Epic Games has raised $1bn to support their internal development of a Metaverse.  

 

 

Where we are

Many confuse the elements of Web 3.0 with the Metaverse. So far, the Metaverse refers to customer experience elements only. But even these are far from being simple to deliver. We do not have a true Metaverse yet.

 

Today’s Metaverse companies are early pioneers of 3D virtual worlds, meaning they are not yet truly connected and open like the Internet would require them to be. Currently, the Metaverse is a collection of unrelated software platforms that do not communicate.

 

Unlike the Word Wide Web in the 1990s, there is no standard for the Metaverse yet, nor a dominant company to show the way – it is hard to spot the Netscape equivalent in this early Metaverse. We have many companies competing on separate projects for the Metaverse, some might become the dominant platforms in the future. 

 

But today if you build a shop in the web it will be accessible by all automatically, worldwide. If you want to build your virtual 3D shop in the Metaverse you must choose a virtual world where you can host your shop- and that means that only users in that virtual world will be able to visit it.

 

There are many ‘virtual universes’ to choose from: HyperVerse, Sandbox, Decentraland, Naka, Nakamoto, MetaHero, Star Atlas, Bloktopia, Roblox, Stageverse and Spatial are some of the names you will encounter.

 

The real Metaverse will only emerge when the fragmentation or lack of interoperability will finally stop. Until then though, there is plenty that can be learnt and explored in this virtual world.

 

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Dario Betti is CEO of MEF (Mobile Ecosystem Forum) a global trade body established in 2000 and headquartered in the UK with members across the world. As the voice of the mobile ecosystem, it focuses on cross-industry best practices, anti-fraud and monetisation. The Forum provides its members with global and cross-sector platforms for networking, collaboration and advancing industry solutions.  

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com