Tencent 2021 Metaverse Annual Report: The Metaverse Provides an Opportunity to Reflect on the Relationship Between People, Media, and Technology
The metaverse is not a sourceless water or a rootless tree; its development has always been based on past underlying technologies and their cultural foundations. We hope to shine a light to illuminate the path for those who hesitate, to clarify doubts for those who are unclear about the concept, and to measure the pace of the metaverse's development process.Author: Tencent Technology
Original Title: "2021-2022 Metaverse Report"
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In 2021, if there was anything that could attract global attention, it would certainly be the metaverse. Open your phone, and information about the metaverse will leap onto the "screen," with discussions about it echoing across various industries, to the point where some jokingly claim "everything can be a metaverse." While this view is hard to verify, it does not obscure one fact— the metaverse is very popular.
The past year, 2021, has been called the inaugural year of the metaverse. The concept of an inaugural year is not unfamiliar to us; there have been inaugural years for Weibo, big data, and live streaming. The frequent occurrence of inaugural years and the shortening of their appearance cycles reflect people's beautiful expectations for new things and technologies. However, the arrival of the metaverse's inaugural year seems to carry a different meaning. The development of the metaverse points to the next generation of the internet, with keywords of disruption and transformation at the technical level, and innovation and imagination at the social level. It provides an opportunity for us to reflect on the relationship between humans and media, and between humans and technology.
Different industries and academia have various imaginations, definitions, and expectations for the metaverse. The focus on the metaverse reflects our fundamental thinking about "where humanity is headed." However, the metaverse is not a source-less water or a tree without roots; its development has always been based on past underlying technologies and cultural substrates. We hope to shine a light for those who hesitate, to illuminate the path ahead, to clarify doubts for those who find the concept unclear, and to measure the speed of the metaverse's development process. Therefore, Tencent News and the Department of Communication at Fudan University jointly compiled this metaverse report.
This report starts from the theoretical perspective of journalism and communication, discussing global existing metaverse practices. It resonates with existing metaverse reports while highlighting its own characteristics. It is inappropriate to limit the infinite development possibilities of the metaverse with our current limited understanding. We do not expect to define the metaverse, but it can always replicate the traces of human development. By focusing on the historical evolution of the metaverse, we can use the concept of metaverse rate to measure the technology of the metaverse in creating "remote presence | immersion."
The development of anything is a process of spiral ascent and wave-like progress. The cacophony of the metaverse requires the collective imagination of all humanity to create recognition. In this report, we organize the application scenarios and typical companies of the metaverse, glimpse the phased trends of 2022, and explore the controversies and challenges of the metaverse's existence, aiming to collaboratively build our shared future on the metaverse.
Our focus on the metaverse is not merely on surface phenomena, but on the human society in which we live, on humanity itself, especially on the impact of technology on the forms of human civilization.
The Metaverse is an Ecosystem Built by the Integration of Multiple Technologies
The metaverse does not refer to a single technology or application, but to a 3D space, ecosystem, or environment based on augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality technologies. It is not a utopia detached from the real world, but an interactive blend with the real world. The essence of metaverse technology is "Digital Twins" technology, which is how to generate a rich digital version (avatar) of the real world through various recording media and achieve interoperability between the two.
Metaverse Ratio: A Scoring System for the Metaverse Industry
The "metaverse" is reflected in multiple core dimensions (indicators), including computing power, responsiveness, realism, immersion, interactivity, user autonomy, digital property protection, and digital currency payment. Different companies vary in strength (0-100) or emphasis (1%-100%) across these dimensions, but they can all be considered metaverse companies. Thus, there exists a "Metaverse Ratio." Broadly speaking, cave paintings, Dunhuang murals, oral stories, written texts, dramas, 2D and 3D games, etc., are all metaverse technologies, differing only in their "Metaverse Ratio." A complete metaverse is a horizon that is always receding; we can continually approach it across multiple dimensions but can never fully reach it.
From Science Fiction to Online Games, the Future Landscape of the Metaverse is Becoming Clearer
The Metaverse: The Second Revolution of Internet Transmission Technology
The concept of the metaverse today is a natural extension of internet technology from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. This includes two great leaps: the leap from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 (Leap One), which solved the issue of the internet transitioning from a few writing for many reading to many writing and reading, and the leap from Web 2.0 through Web 3.0 to the metaverse (Leap Two), which will address issues of content production ownership protection and the transition from symbolic communication to embodied communication.
Diversified and Layered Application Scenarios: Expanding Space for Technology and Social Imagination
The application scenarios of the metaverse can be divided into core layer, technology layer, and environment layer. The core layer is the most basic and widespread application scenario of the metaverse, characterized by a wide user coverage, high technological realization, and close proximity to daily life, meeting users' basic metaverse living needs. The technology layer is the leading scenario of the metaverse, characterized by technological innovation, conceptual leadership, and discourse competitiveness. It is a key area for large enterprises and multinational companies to compete and an important support for the metaverse. The environment layer is a comprehensive application scenario for the development of the metaverse, characterized by complexity and ecological features, with the "metaverse+" ecosystem emerging in large numbers, leading to a normalization of competition for user attention.
Future Development Trends of the Metaverse: Technological and Social Transformations as Key Coordinates
The technologies and applications related to the metaverse are still rapidly developing. Predictions for the future development trends of the metaverse can be discussed in terms of technological and social transformations, and sorted according to the degree of the Metaverse Ratio. We predict that in the coming years, the core dimensions of the metaverse will become increasingly strong, including computing power, responsiveness, realism, immersion, interactivity, user autonomy, digital property protection, and digital currency payment. Its applications in manufacturing, urban planning, retail, education, healthcare, entertainment, and social interaction will also increase.
The concepts, technologies, hardware, software, content, and applications of the metaverse will all face reconstruction and reconfiguration.
"Everything Can Be a Metaverse" is the Main Culprit Leading the Misguided Direction of Metaverse Development
We should be cautious about the excessive hype surrounding the "metaverse." The concept of the "metaverse" originates from a dystopian science fiction novel, which easily evokes the association that "it encourages people to escape from the real world." This may be accepted in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it does not bode well for the development of the metaverse in the post-pandemic era. Additionally, investments in the new media industry are often driven and distorted by "buzzword economics," so we should be cautious about the inflated valuations of certain "metaverse companies."
Digital Immortality in the Post-Human Era: The Future Direction of Technological Development
The metaverse is an extension of the real world, not a replacement for it. It will profoundly affect our understanding of time, space, reality, body, relationships, ethics, work, learning, and education. We publish information about ourselves in cyberspace through various technologies, ultimately achieving mutual replication of users between real and virtual spaces, and our digital avatars evolve into our "digital twins."
In the future, the metaverse will become an environment, no longer something people frequently mention, just like air, water, and the internet. At that time, will the metaverse no longer be important, but rather have become an "elemental medium" that we have grown accustomed to?
