A second life online

 THE META-UNIVERSE OF FACEBOOK.

A VIRTUAL GAME

OR A SECOND

LIFE ONLINE.

For a few years now, Facebook has been working on a futuristic project to create a metaverse, or metaverse or meta universe. This is a virtual and persistent world, accessible via an augmented reality helmet. A sort of second life through an avatar. A life-size Second Life SL with global dimensions.
Facebook but also Alibaba and Tencent are each in the construction of metaverse and invest in turn several million dollars in the game.

The technology of 2021 is in tune with the meta-universe.

Today’s market is certainly more receptive and mature than 20 years ago. Almost 90% of the populations in Europe and the United States have access to computers and broadband Internet. On the other hand, the pandemic normalizes and democratizes human relations at a distance. Moreover, the use of virtual currencies is becoming commonplace and the crypto-currencies Bitcoin or Cardano etc. are overheating on the stock market. Everything therefore seems to be conducive to the emergence of meta universes.

Pragmatism in value registration

Nevertheless, value enrichment rarely benefits the leaders. The failure of Google in social networks, Facebook in email or in online sales are clear examples. Nature abhors a vacuum. And if today’s giants do not implement the metaverse ecosystem definitively, they invest heavily in it. As a result, they are creating the necessary conditions for the convergence of services. In other words, how do you get Fortnite, Teams, Alibaba e-commerce and Facebook social to converge in a virtual world ?

The Facebook meta-universe conquering the European cultural leadership.

Thus, since October 18, 2021, the social network is launching a recruitment campaign for 10,000 highly qualified European employee profiles, highly specialized engineers to develop what the site describes as the IT platform of the future.

However, it should be noted that the European Union is the area where the defense of personal data protection and privacy regulation are among the strictest active and evident in the world, as in the case of the RGPD.

Facebook states that no company will own and operate the metaverse, … like the Internet, its main characteristic will be its openness and interoperability.

What is a metaverse?

It is a meta-universe that relies on computer technology. It has an economic purpose and therefore has a local currency that generates transactions and profits. Emotions are present because the participants have an interactive avatar.

Indeed, a metaverse is a kind of future Internet, where we no longer navigate in two dimensions, a meta universe where real and virtual merge until they merge. A science-fiction vision already present in several video games.

The game still goes on.

Today, EVE Online is the only game that offers a true persistent universe. Because the game continues to evolve, even in the absence of the average player. And every action of every player has a direct consequence on the other players and on the game world. Above all, all the players on the planet evolve in a single common server.

The meta-universe of facebook and the contributions of the planet Hollywood.

On the other hand, the potential sources of inspiration for Facebook’s meta universe project already have the power of Hollywood storytelling. Examples can be found in science fiction films such as The Matrix or Ready Player One by Steven Spielberg. In the latter, the protagonists put on visors and haptic suits to reach an out-of-this-world world, the Oasis.

The technological resources of the Facebook meta universe.

Thus gradually, screens, holograms, VR headsets, virtual reality and augmented reality glasses make it easier to move from virtual worlds to physical places, like teleportations, according to Mark Zuckerberg.

I always thought it was the Holy Grail of social interaction, said the Facebook boss in an interview with The Verge.

The metaverse is the future of the Facebook social network.

According to its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, My hope is that in about 5 years (…) people perceive us primarily as a company of the metaverse, he said in this interview to the specialized site The Verge in late July 2021.

Projections of the emergence of new disruptive technologies in the meta universe.

The California-based giant’s new ambition depends on its VR virtual reality and augmented reality division, Facebook Reality Labs FRL. Andrew Bosworth leads this department. Similarly, he is also responsible for the Oculus immersive headsets. It is only used for entertainment purposes for now.

The meta-universe of facebook.

In this context, Facebook is quick to point out that the construction of the computing platform of the future is done in collaboration with other partners. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the social network, Mark Zuckerberg in his exercise of anticipation declares that in the next decade, technology will allow us to open new ways to capture and communicate new forms of experience.

An effective acquisition strategy.

In March 2014, Facebook bought Oculus VR, an American company specializing in virtual reality devices, for $2 billion. And on May 06, 2014, Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe issues the possibility of building on the foundation of the Facebook community to launch a future massively multiplayer online MMO game based on virtual reality at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York.

The Horizon meta universe of Facebook.

In August 2021, the site of the social network gives news of the Horizon project and shows a first variation, Workrooms. It is however a virtual reality alternative to video conferencing.

Indeed, it is only in 2019 that the social network Facebook unveils Horizon, a concept of social and playful universe in virtual reality.

Today’s players are tomorrow’s consumers. The market is up and running.

It is clear that Horizon produces tangible results quite quickly. And that Facebook can rely on nearly 2 billion daily users whose age and purchasing power place them in an economically profitable target.