The Battle for Metaverse Supremacy: How Tech Giants Fight For It

 

The Metaverse. What used to be a unfamiliar term has grown into a big futuristic aspect that everyone has heard. There are many companies racing to establish dominance within this virtual world. Every day, the idea of a virtual world is becoming more a reality. Hence why companies like Facebook, Google, and Tencent investing heavily in the development of the Metaverse.

What is the Metaverse?

The term Metaverse. Everyone has heard of it, but what is it exactly. What is this term that has so much influence that Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook into Meta?
In short, the Metaverse is a shared, 3D, virtual space where people can live and do all kinds of things. Furthermore, they can also experience things they might not be able to do in their physical life.

The Metaverse can be accessed through two ways:

• Virtual Reality, This is a simulated 3D world which people can use to interact with their virtual surroundings. One interacts with this world through a VR headset. If one wants to have the total experience, they can use entire body suits including gloves and vests which give an even more life likely experience through all their senses.
  
  

• Augmented reality, This is more a digital addition to real life. AR adds a digital overlay on the real world through lenses or glasses. Users are still able to interact with real world events. However, the person can, by using these glasses/lenses, add digital aspects to it.
  
  

NFT’s in the Metaverse

Non fungible tokens (NFT’s) are 100% unique. Therefore they are used as digital certificates of ownership which runs on the blockchain. Most NFT’s are created through digital files; mostly photos, videos or GIFs. It takes a lot of skills to create a NFT, more of which you can read about in this TechBehemoth’s article.

Because NFT’s are this digital form of ownership, it has multiple uses within the Metaverse. If one wants to buy a virtual form of real estate, or land, it will be sold as a NFT. If you want to view and sell art within the Metaverse, you sell the NFT. This will give ownership towards the buying party.

Establishing Dominance in the Metaverse

The Metaverse market is expected to reach $996 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of 38.8 per cent. The market size in 2021 was approximately $22.79 billion in 2021. No wonder that all major companies are investing heavily into this market.

Tech giants like Facebook are racing to establish dominance within the Metaverse, with Facebook, like mentioned before, renaming itself Meta to show its commitment to this new platform. Other companies like Google have also been investing heavily in the development of the Metaverse.

In addition to these large companies, there are also a number of smaller companies that are working on the Metaverse.  LG and Huawei are patenting a lot. According to Nikkei Asia (Asia’s largest business media group.), LG has filed the most patent applications since 2016.
However, besides companies throwing patents left and right, they are able to stick their heads together as well. Meta, Microsoft and many more tech giants have founded the Metaverse Standards Forum in order to increase the efficiency of Metaverse development. However, multiple big names are missing. Besides gaming companies and crypto-based Metaverse companies, Apple is missing as well.

The Fight for Supremacy Amongst Tech Giants

The fight for supremacy amongst tech giants is not just about establishing dominance within a virtual world, but also about controlling the future of the internet. As the Metaverse continues to develop, it could become the primary platform for socialization and commerce, with those who control the Metaverse potentially controlling the flow of information and commerce within this virtual world. 

This has resulted in a very high competitive market. Even though Apple has not publicly announced plans to create a VR headset, it has shown it to their own board. If Apple chooses to introduce such device, it will be a direct competitor of Meta.
Meta, who have focused their future and investments on the growth of the Metaverse, are spending 10 billion on the development on the virtual technologies this year alone. Trying to lead research and development. 

Concerns about the Metaverse

With the development of the Metaverse, concerns arise as well. As mentioned earlier, the Metaverse has the potential to become the new way for attaining information. This leads to major concerns for some since those who control the Metaverse could control the flow of information within this virtual world.

Furthermore, concerns about the impact of the Metaverse on social interaction have risen as well. It is argued that the Metaverse could lead to a loss of social interaction, as people become more isolated in their virtual worlds. They can attend meetups online that would not be possible in the physical world. They also express concerns about the impact of the Metaverse on mental health, as people become more isolated and disconnected from the real world. This could be a result of, as mentioned earlier, people living a better live in the virtual world than in the real one; because they are experiencing things they normally couldn’t.

Final Words of Wisdom

The Metaverse has the potential to be a game-changing development in the tech world, with the potential to revolutionize the way we socialize, do business, and access information. However, there are also concerns about the impact of the Metaverse on society, including concerns about the potential for the Metaverse to become a monopoly controlled by a single company, and the potential for the Metaverse to continue with existing inequalities. Which single company will rule this monopoly is unclear, as tons of companies are investing in the Metaverse. For now, collaborations are being formed to develop the virtual world as fast as possible. However, this does not mean that there wont be a single leading company at the end.
As the Metaverse continues to develop, it will be important to ensure that it is a platform that is accessible to everyone. Additionally, it will be important to address concerns about the impact of the Metaverse on society, and to ensure that it is developed in a way that benefits everyone.