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What will the metaverse mean for current companies?

8 points by ghostmatt ↗ HN
When the metaverse or something similar mean for current companies building on the web.

Anybody have thoughts on this. Like if you have a web/mobile application that is well established will your company be crushed by the metaverse.

Or will companies just pivot and make their software available in some VR/3D format...

Wonder what peoples thoughts are on this subject.

12 comments

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epistasis
I, for one, am completely skeptical. But maybe I'm just old.

Once there is an audience, it may work out. But I have a feeling this will be a big swing and a miss. Hard for Facebook to be the one to build this if it's possible, it's far more likely to come from a scrappy startup like Instagram or WhatsApp did.

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version_five
Its not an original idea or something that can't be made right now. It's just deflection from someone out of ideas. Nothing has changed just because a dying company announced a 30+ year old idea.
PaulHoule
Marshall McLuhan said every new medium incorporates old media as content.

For instance movies incorporated the theater, television incorporated the movies.

One of the best applications of AR or VR is to project virtual screens: watch a movie in an imaginary movie theater, project multiple desktops from your computer into VR space.

Here is the best app they came up with for Magic Leap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7olw_LK_sI

astlouis44
Every single company will need to adapt, just like with every other paradigm shift.

Every brand/company will need a presence in the metaverse, and to do that they will need easy to use tools to create immersive spaces that are accessible across all platforms, including VR.

To this end, my startup is building the "Wordpress for the metaverse".

holler
I'm skeptical on the widespread adoption of ZB's "metaverse" on the grounds that most people simply prefer spending time in reality as opposed to wearing a headset and getting lost in a 3d world, and it isn't a matter of tech/hardware but rather human nature.

But I watched the top video on your twitter page and I appreciate your enthusiasm and down-to-earth explanation of how you see value in the idea.

The TAM with just gaming is huge and that use case alone makes sense to me, but does rely on interoperability to be useful from the consumer perspective as you discussed.

I don't see any incentive whatsoever for existing big tech companies like FB to build an interoperable metaverse unless they retain significant/dominant control over it. In Facebook's case, their entire business is premised on being a walled garden, but they love when people build games and apps within that garden!

In any case I'll have to think about the notion of portals and portable avatars further & will follow your progress!

LarryMade2
The big problems before were a combination of software, cpu/graphics potential, and connectivity/bandwidth. Certainly the software has matured in the decade(s) since the initial hype but I don't know how many currently have adequate devices and connectivity to make it work on scale.

I think AR has a chance at a foothold (still opportunities to fake cutting edge with some smoke and mirrors) but VR? I dunno.

dotcoma
So, Second Life is going to work for real this time around?

They were just ahead of their times? Really?

crate_barre
Think about it more like how Tobacco companies once operated. If you can get kids to smoke young, you’ll have a lifetime smoker. If FB wants to literally create their customers, inoculate them in the first thing they will gravitate to as kids - games.

It’s no surprise they were trying to make Insta for Kids, and they are keeping a watchful eye on the success of TikTok, Roblox, and Twitch.

It’s better to make your customer than find your customer.

dotcoma
Interesting take.

And I guess tobacco companies learned from the Catholic Church.

SMVS
The Metaverse IS existing companies. There are literally hundreds of thousands working on the decentralized components of the future Metaverse. None of them work for Mark Zuckerberg, however.
ilaksh
If you want an open Metaverse, get Firefox and the Oculus Browser to put back in the links/portals immersive feature that allows you to navigate between spaces in VR without getting kicked out to 2d mode.

Web browsers support VR by the way. A-frame VR is a convenient option for that.

I just added a VR mode to our NFT auction website for galleries. https://gifeconomy.com