The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection wrote: How the Metaverse is reshaping human social life

Original authors: Guan Xiaopu, Li Yunshu, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and National Supervisory Commission website

Original title: "In-Depth Focus | How the Metaverse is Reshaping Human Social Life"

The year 2021, which is about to pass, is referred to as the first year of the Metaverse.

From being able to "surf" the internet only through wired connections on computers to accessing the internet anytime and anywhere via smartphones, tablets, and other smart devices, the impact of the mobile internet era is still fresh in our memories. At present, although the successor concept of the "Metaverse" is not yet clearly defined, it has become a focal point of attention from all sides.

What exactly is the Metaverse? What are its birth background and main characteristics, and what changes will it bring to people's social lives? How can we correctly recognize the opportunities and risks within it to create a good ecological environment for industry development? The reporter interviewed relevant experts on these topics.

There is no single technology called "Metaverse" in the world; the Metaverse is a combination and upgrade of various existing technologies, which can be understood as a "3D version of the internet."

In the eyes of a thousand people, there are a thousand Metaverses.

The imagination of the Metaverse began with the publication of the science fiction novel "Snow Crash" in 1992. The book describes a virtual world called the Metaverse, where people can connect through public entrances and enter it as virtual "avatars," embarking on a life different from the real world. In recent years, with global technological advancements, the connotation and extension of the Metaverse have been continuously evolving.

The 2018 film "Ready Player One" is considered to present the form of the Metaverse that most aligns with today's human imagination. In the film, the male protagonist puts on a VR headset and enters another extremely realistic virtual game world—"The Oasis." The image shows the poster of "Ready Player One."

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes, "The Metaverse is a vision that spans many companies and even the entire tech industry; you can think of it as the successor to the mobile internet." NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated, "The real world and the Metaverse are interconnected."

Generally speaking, the Metaverse is a virtual world that is born from the internet, interconnected with the real world, and exists in parallel. It is a virtual space that can mirror the real world while being independent of it. It is not a closed universe dominated by one entity but a constantly colliding and expanding digital universe composed of countless virtual worlds and digital content. "We believe that the development direction of the Metaverse should be a 100% permeated, 24/7 uninterrupted form of the internet," said Kong Rong, Chief Analyst of Global Technology at Tianfeng Securities, suggesting that the Metaverse can be understood as a "3D version of the internet," which provides an immersive experience through the 3D representation of the internet.

"From a comprehensive perspective, the Metaverse is a new type of internet application and social form that integrates multiple new technologies." Shen Yang, Executive Director of the New Media Research Center at Tsinghua University, believes that the Metaverse closely integrates the virtual world with the real world in economic systems, social systems, and identity systems, allowing each user to produce content and edit the world.

Shen Yang introduced to the reporter that there is no single technology called "Metaverse" in the world; the Metaverse is a combination and upgrade of various existing technologies. In his view, the three core technologies of the Metaverse are extended reality technology, digital twin technology, and blockchain technology, which may experience explosive, exponential growth in the future.

For example, extended reality technology provides immersive experiences through VR and AR, solving problems that cannot be addressed by smartphones. Digital twin technology can mirror the real world into the virtual world, meaning that in the Metaverse, people can see their virtual avatars. As the Metaverse develops further, the degree of simulation of the entire real society will strengthen, and after building an economic system with blockchain technology, people in the Metaverse may not only spend money but also potentially earn money.

"The Metaverse, as an emerging phenomenon, is still a concept that is constantly developing and evolving, with different participants enriching its meaning in their own ways," Shen Yang said.

Multiple factors are driving the Metaverse from concept to popularity, bringing development opportunities for the combination of gaming and socialization, retail and e-commerce, and industrial internet.

Although the concept has existed for a long time, it was not until this year that the Metaverse truly "went viral." In March of this year, Roblox, known as the first stock of the Metaverse, officially went public in New York, USA; in October, the American social media giant Facebook announced its rebranding to "Meta"; recently, well-known domestic and international companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Tencent, Huawei, and Adidas have either boldly entered or quietly laid out related industries.

It can be said that the wave of the Metaverse has swept across the globe, with both traditional industries and tech giants showing strong interest in becoming "top players." Essentially, the Metaverse is not an academic concept but is driven by various sectors of the industry and investment community.

In October of this year, the American social media giant Facebook announced its rebranding to "Meta," focusing on the Metaverse. The image shows people taking photos in front of the "Meta" sign in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA. (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)

Undoubtedly, this year is the year the Metaverse has transitioned from concept to popularity. The reasons behind this are worth pondering.

"2020 was a critical point of virtualization in human history. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes in people's lives." Shen Yang analyzed that, on the one hand, the pandemic accelerated social virtualization; under pandemic prevention measures, the "stay-at-home economy" developed rapidly. On the other hand, online life transitioned from a previously exceptional state to a norm, leading to more demands that could not be met in the real world being satisfied online.

Specifically, the pandemic forced the elderly to go online, bringing online access to groups that were previously distant from the internet; in daily work, people became more accustomed to using online meeting software for business discussions; with basic utilities secured, the popularity of home delivery services, and the ample supply of online information, the pandemic has been promoting the "virtual existence of homebodies"… These changes laid the groundwork for 2021 to be recognized as the first year of the Metaverse.

Kong Rong also listed two reasons: first, the global internet penetration rate has reached a high level, user dividends are gradually diminishing, and users have developed deeper, richer, and more diverse demands for a more immersive virtual world; second, key technologies such as VR/AR hardware, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and cloud computing are gradually evolving and iterating.

"For example, suppose we return from a trip to Huangshan. If family members want to know how fun Huangshan is, they can only see photos and videos on their phones at most. If it were the Metaverse era, I could share my location and space, including the three-dimensional objects in the space, and they could immediately enter that space through corresponding devices and experience something similar to what I feel. Such immersive experiences based on extended reality will naturally be welcomed," Shen Yang said.

In theory, we can replicate everything offline to online, which is the ultimate state of the Metaverse. Currently, the following areas are more likely to be digitized and deserve attention.

The first scenario is the combination of gaming and socialization, which may give birth to the next generation of Douyin or WeChat. Current social platforms are 2D social, primarily conveying text and image information, but when we usually go out with friends, whether dining, watching movies, or attending concerts, it is not just about the content itself but also about social interaction. Especially under the pandemic, isolation has made offline interactions difficult, creating a strong user demand for virtual social platforms.

The second scenario is in the retail and e-commerce sector. Currently, our shopping is more about browsing Taobao, Douyin, and getting recommendations through Xiaohongshu. During the browsing process, most of it is in the form of images and videos, lacking a 3D feel. In the future, a new form of e-commerce may emerge due to the Metaverse, replicating offline streets online, allowing users to feel as if they are shopping in real streets, walking into different stores, and selecting products with the help of virtual salespeople.

The Metaverse also has strong application scenarios in the industrial internet. In early 2021, BMW collaborated with NVIDIA's Omniverse platform to create a digital factory, using digital twin technology for online testing, improving the accuracy and efficiency of planning processes, with efficiency in the planning phase increasing by about 30%, and achieving a production rate of one vehicle every 56 seconds during the manufacturing phase. In August 2021, Tesla engineers demonstrated how to build digital scenes, simulating real camera data and allowing artificial intelligence to conduct simulated testing and fitting within them.

"So, do not narrowly understand the Metaverse as just a social gaming platform; if it can make our real world more 3D and three-dimensional, efficiency will be greatly enhanced, bringing people closer together," Kong Rong stated. The ultimate immersive interactive experience can provide people with experiences far beyond the 2D era, and the iteration of life, industry, society, and technology will greatly enhance efficiency, while human costs, resource costs, time costs, and transaction costs are also expected to decrease.

Rationally view the new round of technological revolution brought by the Metaverse and its impact on society, neither underestimating the opportunities in 5-10 years nor overestimating the evolutionary changes in 1-2 years.

With the hot topic of the Metaverse, various schemes that exploit related concepts to "raise funds" have also emerged. As of mid-November, over 4,300 Metaverse trademarks have been applied for in China, involving nearly 700 companies, with 99.9% of the trademarks registered this year.

In March 2021, Roblox, known as the "first stock of the Metaverse," officially went public in New York, USA. Roblox is a platform that combines game creation and large community interaction, where players can chat, interact, and create with friends through games. The image shows the poster of the Roblox game. (Photo source: Roblox official website)

Many industry insiders believe that while the Metaverse points the way for the future of the internet industry, it also has significant bubbles.

The integration of virtual and real has become a major trend in internet development, but the Metaverse industry is still in its early stages, far from large-scale productization. It is undeniable that the Metaverse industry exhibits characteristics of emerging industries, such as immaturity and instability, and there are also some potential risks. In Shen Yang's view, the conceptual layout of the Metaverse is still concentrated in the fields of extended reality and gaming socialization, with the technological ecosystem and content ecosystem yet to mature, and the entry points for scenarios still needing to be broadened, with a long "de-bubbling" process existing between ideal visions and real development.

Shen Yang listed the following risks to the reporter: capital manipulation, as the embryonic stage of the Metaverse still has many uncertainties, both the industry and the market urgently need to return to rationality, and should be wary of capital seeking profit through creating new concepts, hyping new trends, and attracting new investments; media hype, as the current Metaverse industry is still in the foundational stage of "social + gaming" application scenarios, far from achieving full industry coverage and ecological openness, economic self-consistency, and the ideal state of virtual-real interconnection, we should be cautious of irrational media bubbles causing irrational stock market fluctuations; economic risks, as the Metaverse also provides a more concealed manipulation space for the financial harvesting behavior of giant capital to some extent, financial regulation needs to expand from the real world to the virtual world. Additionally, there are risks in ethics, monopoly, computing power, privacy, addiction, and knowledge production areas to varying degrees within the Metaverse.

Kong Rong believes that we should rationally view the new round of technological revolution brought by the Metaverse and its impact on society. The existing market's doubts about the Metaverse mainly stem from the immaturity and mismatch of hardware conditions and network environments for technological realization, and the key technologies needed to build the ultimate Metaverse, such as computing power, platforms, and network construction, still require a long time to perfect.

Currently, some companies' hype around the Metaverse concept differs significantly from the real Metaverse, necessitating careful judgment to discern truth from falsehood. In the industry’s view, the Metaverse will remain the target for the next generation of internet development for a considerable time, relying on breakthroughs in core technologies, technological evolution, and changes at the underlying technology and computing power levels.