News about the metaverse hype has been dominated in recent months by rounds of layoffs and falling investment. That sounds negative, but according to Remco Sikkema, Movella, it’s very normal when it comes to such an all-changing development. On the contrary, he welcomes it: “Now, we have time to think about how the metaverse can be properly designed. For example, when it comes to the security or the business model.”
The definition of the metaverse is fairly broad and no one agrees on it, but according to Remco Sikkema, Senior MarCom Manager at Movella, that’s the beauty of it. He does not describe the metaverse as a virtual world. “There are plenty of virtual worlds, think of Roblox and Fortnite. That is why I define the metaverse as a moment in time where the division between the virtual and physical world becomes less clear.”
Walking with a friend, but virtually
He cites an example in which the separation is less clear: “Every day, I do a round with the dog and every time I think, who shall I call? But what if I have someone with me. You beam them in, as it were, and then the person can walk with you and then, you can have a normal conversion. For example, supported by augmented reality (AR) glasses. Those are solutions when I think when I think of the metaverse.”
Now, when the mainstream media talks about the metaverse, it is often referred to as the metaverse as described in the book Snow Crash. It is a virtual world, where you step into a digital life by, for example, putting on VR glasses. “We’ve adopted that term, but I don’t think that’s how we’re going to develop the metaverse.”
We don’t have any big steps to take yet
The development of the metaverse has been going on for years, but the future as Sikkema envisions, it will not be realized by the end of the year, he says. “I think it will be another ten or even twenty years before we develop the real metaverse. We still have major steps to take in terms of hardware, software, cloud, network. At the moment, it is not ready yet.”
Because the metaverse requires a long-term vision, it is not surprising, according to Sikkema, that there is a downward trend in investments in the metaverse. “The latest metaverse hype started when Facebook changed its name to Meta. Investors see this development and think: there is money in it. But because it is such a long-term story, they haven’t properly estimated the return on investment.”
Metaverse hype is dying down
In short, Sikkema does not think it is a bad development at all that the metaverse hype has died down. “Now, we as a market have the time to think carefully about the metaverse. Organizations are now looking at which standards you need, for example to guarantee interoperability.” But this interoperability requires organizations to make different decisions and develop different business models, says Sikkema.
“You see that every company, like Apple, Epic and Unity all have their own platform. But in the future users will switch between the platforms without any problems and take assets with them to the other platforms, for example. This means that you run the risk that a user will not buy from you, but from a competitor. But on the other hand, you increase your target group and you will convert much more.”
Research new business models
“You must let go of things. For example, the idea that you have your own marketplace. It is a very big change and therefore a lot of research is needed. Now that the hype has died down, people have time to think about it. But research is also being done into how to stay safe, while being free to come and go as you please. How do you ensure that your identity is safe and how do you prevent theft”, says Sikkema.
Even though investors obviously have no patience for long-term developments such as the metaverse, it continues to evolve. Sikkema explains: “In the coming period, companies will start working with alpha and beta releases, such as the Dutch company Your Open Metaverse (YOM). We’ll see where it will go, bit by bit. That I look forward to.”
