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At the center of many new events and projects around the world, the metaverse 3D virtual world could reach an $800 billion market by 2024, Bloomberg estimates.In the current environment, even jpmorgan Chase, McDonald's and Manchester City, three seemingly unrelated entities, have something in common: all are involved in the metaverse.
The metaverse is being adopted globally by different industries, institutions, and governments, including gaming, entertainment, art, and education, and may grow rapidly by connecting people without physical limitations, especially in a long-term pandemic.Even Mingout, an online dating platform in India, recently launched the Meta universe as an alternative to users who are looking for a dating experience but are physically limited.With the efforts of the top players in the metacosmos, an era of boundaries, race, and physical restrictions approaching zero is coming.
Decentraland
Decentraland, one of the most famous metaverse projects in the crypto industry, was released in February 2020 with more than 300,000 monthly active users.The Decentraland metaverse is built on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing users to connect their accounts to their personal encrypted wallets for a full gaming experience.Users can use the virtual platform's native token MANA (with a current market value of about $4.5 billion) to buy and sell virtual real estate and other collectibles.Parcel is the unit of digital land on the platform, sold as an NFT. The cheaper lots cost about 5,000, M A N A, or about $12,500.
Decentraland, which has attracted investment from big companies.For example, jpmorgan opened a lounge on Decentraland, named after its Onyx, an Ethereum-based blockchain service; Samsung Electronics rebuilt its Manhattan flagship store on Decentraland; Sotheby's has a virtual gallery on the platform; and Coca-Cola hosted rooftop parties at Decentraland.
The Sandbox
Sandbox is also an early successful metaverse platform, owned by Hong Kong game developer Animoca Brands, with more than 40 million downloads and 1 million monthly live users.Sandbox, based on the Ethereum blockchain, is a community-centric metaverse and has issued the metaverse native cryptocurrency SAND, with a market value of about $3.3 billion.Digital real estate (LAND) on the Sandbox is in the form of an NFT, and players can buy, sell, or rent the LAND for a profit.
The owners of LAND and SAND tokens have a say in Sandbox decentralized autonomy (DAO), which together determine and manage the future of the platform.In addition, Sandbox gives users great freedom in creating and inventing its own games and the world.
Sandbox has been recognized by a number of leading global intellectual property owners, including the final Fantasy series owner, Japanese video game company Square Enix, roller coaster tycoon owner Atari, Smurfs, and SM Entertainment, one of the largest K-pop music organizations.SoftBank also invested $93 million in Sandbox in December.Recently, Animoca Brands and K-pop agent Cube formed a joint venture called AniCube Entertainment to bring K-pop artists into Sandbox while building a new music metaverse.
Zepeto
Zepeto is one of the most famous Asian metaverse on the market. It was launched in 2018 by South Korean Internet giant Naver and has 20 million monthly active users as of this year.Last year, Zepeto revealed that 90 percent of its users are from outside South Korea and 80 percent are teenagers.
Zepeto, derived from South Korean selfie app SNOW, offers users great freedom to customize their avatar with regularly updated new hairstyles, facial expressions and clothes.With the avatar, Zepeto users can interact, shoot short TikTok-like videos, play games, and access virtual worlds with different themes.
Zepeto works with global renowned figures and companies to gather popularity among youth groups and their global audiences.For example, Blackpink, the globally popular K-pop girl group, collaborated with Zepeto and released the single "Ice Cream" ——'s music video with more than 120 million views on YouTube, and the music video set was re-created in the Zepeto metaverse for users to access at any time.Fashion brands Gucci, Christian Dior, Nike, and cosmetics brands NARS have all moved their product lines to Zepeto for users to try on virtually.
HYBE, YG, and JYP, the leading South Korean K-pop brokers, have invested heavily in Naver Z (a Naver subsidiary operating Zepeto).SoftBank, which has been valuing cryptocurrencies, has also invested $150 million in the metaverse platform.
While Zepeto is not based on blockchain and does not use cryptocurrency or NFT, it is slowly integrating encryption technology into its services through Line Tech Plus (a blockchain subsidiary of Naver affiliate LINE Corporation).LINE used its blockchain technology to release the Zepeto World digital Image NFT in Japan last year.
Over the past few months, Naver Z has established two subsidiaries in the United States and Hong Kong focusing on metauniverse localization services for global users, and announced plans to strengthen gaming elements on the platform.
Somnium Space
Somnium Space is an open source meta-universe that opened in 2018 and focuses on the virtual reality (VR) experience.It has issued a cryptocurrency called CUBE and now has a market value of about $72 million. Somnium Space users can use CUBE to rent land and pay for games and activities on its metaverse.
Somnium Space can be accessed from PC and mobile devices, and has a metaverse experience from VR devices.As with other open-source meta-universes, Somnium Space allows players to buy, trade, and build properties on virtual land.In October, Somnium Space announced that it would launch its own VR headset hardware, designed to give users full control of its virtual world experience. Somnium Space believes that, as a decentralized and open metaverse company, it cannot rely on other hardware vendors to communicate and interact with their users.
Somnium Space has also invited the Winklevoss brothers, co-founder of the crypto exchange Gemini, to serve as official advisers.Moreover, it has teamed up with the Solana blockchain to support the establishment of a multi-chain open meta-universe and welcomes Solana NFT into the platform.
Cryptovoxels and Spatial
Art is an important part of many meta-universes and is the main direction of Cryptovoxels and Spatial. Cryptovoxels is a meacum driven by the Ethereum blockchain where users can buy lots and build stores and art galleries.Art galleries have become one of the company's main selling points for Cryptovoxels, featuring hundreds of digital art galleries, including B, which presents the work of outstanding NFT artist Beeple.20 Museum.
Spatial, based in New York, aims to create a metaverse for artists and build the world's largest metaverse gallery.Spatial co-founders said that previous art exhibition models lacked communication between artists and audiences, and that the meta-verse was a new answer to the problem.Global artists such as Grammy-winning producer Illmind, digital artist Krista Kim and sculptor Ken Kelleher (also known as Anchorball) have held events or sold NFT works at Spatial's meta-universe, and completed a $25 million Series B funding in December.
The layout of the traditional giants
Horizon Worlds, Facebook's first meta-verse project since it became Meta, opened to adults in North America in December, and Horizon Venues have grown tenfold to 300,000 since its opening.Although Meta described Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues as "VR social platforms" rather than the metacverse, Zuckerberg sees Horizon software at the heart of Meta's virtual world vision.
In January, Microsoft announced the acquisition of game developer Activision Blizzard as part of its plan to launch virtual worlds.China's Tencent, like Meta and Microsoft, is also developing a metaverse, using its country's dominant wechat app and one of the world's largest game publishers. Tencent also plans to acquire Black Shark, a Chinese gaming phone maker, to expand VR and AR hardware production to enter the meta-universe track, Bloomberg reported.
Major South Korean Internet companies and game developers such as SK Telecom, Com2uS and Netmarble are actively seeking Metacom venture capital, while the Metacom Association, a group of crypto company promisi, is also promoting Metacom technology in Japan.
The metaverse is a new world for the new generation, not just about creativity, but also about the monetization of creativity. Once involved, users will become the real creator economy, truly having assets and virtual reality experiences.
*The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of SparkDAO. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
