The metaverse describes an alternate digital reality where people work, play, and socialize. The word metaverse is a portmanteau of the prefix “meta” (meaning beyond) and “universe”. It was first coined by sci-fi author Neal Stephenson in his book Snow Crash, which tells the story of humans interacting with each other using avatars in a 3D world.
Understanding the metaverse
The metaverse describes a general and somewhat poorly defined future iteration of the internet.
This iteration is predicted to comprise of persistent and shared three-dimensional spaces linked together to form a virtual world.
This will enable users to do anything they want, from hanging out with friends to creating art, shopping, and virtual travel.
It will be different from the current incarnation of the internet where the user must make a conscious choice to access it.
Instead, the metaverse will encompass the convergence of the physical realm with the virtual realm to create a shared virtual space.
This space will be created via interaction between the internet, augmented reality, and virtual reality.
The seven core attributes of the metaverse
The metaverse is still in its infancy, but there seems to be consensus on seven core attributes that will comprise it:
Persistence
Which is to say, it never ends, pauses, or resets. Instead, it continues indefinitely.
Synchronicity
The metaverse is a living experience that exists for everyone and in real-time.
Accessibility
Involvement in a specific event, place, or activity is open to everyone with no restriction on concurrent participation.
Economic function
Much like the current iteration of the internet, individuals and businesses alike will have the ability to create, own, invest in, or sell goods and services that are valued by others.Â
Scope
The metaverse will be an experience that spans private and public networks in the digital and physical world.
It will also feature open and closed platforms.
Interoperability
Data, content, items, and assets can be traded or utilized across different platforms.
For example, a decorated Fortnite gun could serve as a gift to a friend on Facebook.
Contribution
The metaverse is populated by content and experiences created by a wide range of contributors.
These contributors range from individuals to informally organized groups to large, commercial organizations.
Why is the metaverse important?
There is no single owner of the internet, but many of the most valuable organizations in the world are tech companies who exert great influence online.
As a natural successor to the internet, the metaverse will level the playing field and become the next great labor platform.
Aspiring laborers will be able to access the metaverse irrespective of their geographic location or socioeconomic background, thereby tapping into a high-value economy of virtual labor.
With greater functionality, opportunity, and reach, the metaverse is likely to become a highly lucrative and decentralized content platform.
New creators will also have a chance to build a large following on a virgin platform.
Furthermore, new companies will need to be created to manage similarly new technology.
This includes payment processing, ID verification, security, and ad delivery technology, among others.
Key takeaways
The metaverse is a shared virtual space created by the convergence of augmented reality, virtual reality, and the internet.
The metaverse concept is relatively new, but there is agreeance that the future iteration of the internet portrays seven core attributes: persistence, synchronicity, accessibility, economic function, scope, interoperability, and contribution.
The metaverse has the potential to become the next great labor platform, giving individuals diversity of opportunity through access to a high-value virtual economy.
Mark Zuckerberg is the principal shareholder of the company. Not only he retains ownership and control of the company. Facebook, like Google, has issued two kinds of common stocks, Class A and Class B. Where the holders of Class B common stocks are entitled to ten votes per share, and holders of our Class A common stocks are entitled to one vote per share. Mark Zuckerberg has a total voting power of 57.9%.
In an asymmetric businessmodel, the organization doesn’t monetize the user directly. Still, it leverages the data users provide and technology, thus having a key customer pay to sustain the core asset. For example, Google makes money by leveraging users’ data and its algorithms sold to advertisers for visibility. This is how attention merchants make monetize their business models.
In an asymmetric businessmodel, the organization doesn’t monetize the user directly. Still, it leverages the data users provide and technology, thus having a key customer pay to sustain the core asset. For example, Google makes money by leveraging users’ data and its algorithms sold to advertisers for visibility.
Facebook, the main product of Meta, is an attention merchant. As such, its algorithms condense the attention of over 2.91 billion monthly active users as of June 2021. Meta generated $117.9 billion in revenues, in 2021, of which $114.9 billion was from advertising (97.4% of the total revenues) and over $2.2 billion from Reality Labs (the augmented and virtual reality products arm).
The ARPU, or average revenue per user, is a key metric to track the success of Facebook – now Meta – family of products. For instance, by the end of 2021, Meta’s ARPU worldwide was $11.57. While in US & Canada, it was $60.57, in Europe, it was $19.68, in Asia $4.89, and in the rest of the world, it was $3.43.
Facebook is characterized by a multi-faceted matrix organizational structure. The company utilizes a flat organizational structure in combination with corporate function-based teams and product-based or geographic divisions. The flat organizational structure is organized around the leadership of Mark Zuckerberg and the key executives around him. On the other hand, the function-based teams are based on the main corporate functions (like HR, productmanagement, investor relations, and so on).
A hidden revenuebusiness model is a pattern for revenue generation that keeps users out of the equation, so they don’t pay for the service or product offered. For instance, Google’s users don’t pay for the search engine. Instead, the revenue streams come from advertising money spent by businesses bidding on keywords.
TikTok is a Chinese creative social media platform driven by short-form video content enabling users to interact and generate content at scale. TikTok primarily makes money through advertising, and it generated $4.6 billion in advertising revenues in 2021, thus making it among the most popular attention-based business models or attention merchants.
Instagram makes money via visual advertising. As part of Facebook products, the company generates revenues for Facebook Inc.’s overall businessmodel. Acquired by Facebook for a billion dollars in 2012, today Instagram is integrated into the overall Facebook business strategy. In 2018, Instagram founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger left the company, as Facebook pushed toward tighter integration of the two platforms.
YouTube was acquired for almost $1.7 billion in 2006 by Google. It makes money through advertising and subscription revenues. YouTube advertising network is part of Google Ads, and it generated more than $28B in revenue by 2021. YouTube also makes money with its paid memberships and premium content.
Twitter makes money in two ways: advertising and data licensing. In 2021, Twitter generated $4.5 billion from advertising and $570 million from data licensing. While Twitter generated $5 billion in total revenues, it lost 221 million.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
