Internet giant Facebook announced earlier this week the creation of a team dedicated to the “metaverse.” It is a world where the real and the virtual merge until they are combined. The sci-fi vision already exists in video games.
“metaverse” (metaverse in English, shrinking meta and cosmos) embodies the future of the social network, as its founder Mark Zuckerberg asserts. “I hope in five years people will look at us (…) primarily as a metaverse,” he said in an interview with The Verge last week.
It’s not just the digitization of the real world, for example, it would be to visit the exhibition online. It is a fantasy world that integrates elements of reality, in which people interact in the form of avatars. It is no longer about going to ‘Facebook’ but ‘in’ Facebook.
Concert by avatar
Last spring, American rapper Travis Scott, through his avatar, gave a concert on the online game Fortnite. Spectator players can interact.
Virtual clothing fittings
We can also imagine other uses in this “metaverse,” according to Julien Pillot, professor-researcher in economics at the National Center for Scientific Research in France.
“It could be a clothing store that gives easy access to the entire range of the brand in question, which can allow for virtual fittings, as well as solicit real-time opinions from their community to see if they endorse the new shirt or the new dress,” he explains. At La Matinale de la RTS.
Anonymous to potential customers
Anything can be possible in the metaverse, with technologies that continue to evolve.
But there are still many unknowns, according to Julian Bellot: “Will there eventually be enough customers to cover the costs involved in developing this metaverse?” , he wondered. “The question remains open at the moment, but it’s not surprising in my view that companies like Facebook (…) are very interested in this kind of expertise.”
The California giant’s new ambition will be based on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality division, Facebook Reality Labs (FRL), which is specifically responsible for Oculus’ immersive headsets, used primarily for entertainment purposes, for now.
People were recruited from the Instagram app as well as from Facebook Gaming and Oculus.
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