A year and a half after Facebook announced it was gambling on the metaverse (even changing the name of its parent company to Meta), this technology remains in its infancy. Consumers are far from living in a parallel reality, where they can go to work or consume goods in the same way as they would in the physical world.
In the meantime, the closest experiences to this virtual world are still provided by tech that has been on the market for years: virtual reality, a scenario in which the user feels fully immersed; augmented reality, which adds layers of virtual elements in the physical world; 3D technology, which recreates an object or image in three dimensions as if it were real; and NFT technology, which enables the creation of unique works of art through blockchain technology.
"There are companies that claim to offer experiences in the metaverse but they're not there yet: the technology is not fluid, continuous and open, but exists in a specific and limited way," says Enrique San Juan, a consultant specializing in social networks and technology, who explains that access to these experiences is still within the reach of very few. In fact, the glasses that allow us to access a virtual experience carry a price tag of more than 1,000 euros. Nevertheless, the industry continues to move into the metaverse. In recent months, Microsoft and Meta have announced a joint plan to create the virtual office of the future.
What's more, 600 major companies from the world of technology and consumer goods have formed a consortium to launch an open metaverse onto the market. These include Meta itself as well as Alibaba, the World Wide Web consortium, Ikea, Huawei and Epic Games. On a technological level, more advanced versions of glasses that enable immersive experiences have also been released. Among them, are the Oculus Quest Pro – Meta's favorite.
"In the industry, advancements are moving at an anticipated pace. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg said on the day he announced his wager on the metaverse that reaching the general public would take another 10 years and that the development of the technology would be slow," asserts San Juan.
In addition, he believes that the metaverse has lost some appeal since ChatGPT, the platform that has popularized generative artificial intelligence (which generates words or images intuitively and fluidly), burst onto the scene at the end of last year. "This technology has displaced the media attention that the metaverse generated. Now, it is no longer the next big thing, but that does not mean that the industry is not moving forward or that it has ceased to be important. At least, that’s the case with Meta, which made such a big commitment that it is now very difficult for it to back out," says the consultant. In fact, this tech giant insisted that it was going to invest around 36 billion dollars in the development of a parallel virtual reality.
Nor does San Juan believe that the wave of cutbacks being experienced by major tech firms is significantly dampening investment in this technology. "The digital sector oversized its workforce during the coronavirus pandemic due to the boom in online commerce during the months of confinement. As a result, the industry is now experiencing a period of correction marked by massive layoffs. However, its innovation plans remain in place because its future success depends on it. The exception is the cryptoassets sector, which has seen its ratings plummet due to a deep reputational crisis with the bankruptcy of the FTX platform and other smaller companies. As a consequence, the NFT industry (whose exchange is carried out in the metaverse) is curbing its momentum. According to data from the consultancy Chainalysis, at the beginning of 2021 these cryptoassets generated around one million transactions, but by the end of 2022 the figure had fallen by more than half (491,000).
In any case, it seems clear that the technologies linked to the metaverse will continue to advance without generating as much noise as they did at the beginning. And proof of this can be found at this year's MWC, which is being held this week at the Fira de Barcelona exhibition center in l'Hospitalet de Llobregat in an edition that hopes to restore momentum following the pandemic.
The Mobile World Capital Barcelona foundation is convinced of its potential and will showcase various use cases at the congress. "The metaverse will be one more piece in the Internet and will have cross-cutting applications. In the healthcare sector we can already experience remote assistance for operations, in the industrial world digital twin technologies are being applied, and in the coming years experiences in leisure and tourism will grow," says Eduard Martín, director of smart connectivity at the foundation.
Although the uses of the technologies that support the metaverse are limited, the market has high hopes for this innovation. According to data from consulting firm McKinsey, the industry has the potential to generate a business value of five trillion dollars by 2030, by which time it will have reached the general public.
