Brief Summary: Digital transformation, which deeply affects our lives, lifestyle and habits, is increasing its speed. Let's examine together what awaits us in this new order, from our daily habits to economic life.
What is Metaverse?
The Metaverse is a post-reality universe, a persistent and persistent multi-user environment that combines physical reality with digital virtuality. (Mystakidis,S. 2022, February 10. Metaverse) Technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (Mixed Reality) have brought important innovations that pave the way for people to have the experience of being together virtually when they cannot be together physically. With Metaverse, it has become possible to talk about the existence of the internet environment we are directly in through virtual reality glasses, instead of the internet environment we are involved in through a computer browser or phone screen during Web 2.0. In this way, we can easily say that we will move to a new dimension where we will experience the experience of being together with our colleagues in our 3D virtual office, instead of business meetings we hold with video chat tools.
It is seen that the use of virtual reality technologies has gradually increased in the last 20 years. At this point, it is possible to talk about the existence of sample applications and projects related to metaverse in almost every sector. Many applications have been developed and made available to users in many fields, from education to health, from culture and arts to sports, from occupational health and safety training to loyalty programs, from product presentations and experience to digital catalogues and marketing. We are also talking about a new economy with the Metaverse. In this economy, we can buy and sell assets in our virtual worlds. We see that the assets subject to purchase and sale are traded through digital currencies (bitcoin, Ethereum, AXS, etc.) built on the blockchain infrastructure. Just as we can wear a shirt we bought in our real life and go to a concert, we can say that with Metaverse, we can wear our virtual costumes to our virtual characters, which we call avatars, and go to concert events.
Which Virtual Universes Can We Talk About?
As of the second quarter of 2022, the Metaverse population is seen to have reached 440 million monthly active users, and it is stated that this figure is 10% more than the previous quarter's value. There are many Metaverse products with features suitable for the tastes and needs of children, teenagers and adult user groups. In the gaming industry, products such as Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft come to the fore with their number of users, while in the social networks sector, products such as Horizon Worlds, Bigscreen VR, VR Chat, Altspace VR stand out with their number of users. To access the current and detailed study on this subject,Click here.It is seen that the sales figures of the virtual reality glasses required to experience the Metaverse have not yet reached the desired saturation and the process of connecting to virtual worlds is mostly through browsers. (Mitham,N. 2022, February. The Metaverse Universe: Q2 2022 Update)
Thanks to NFT (Qualified Intellectual Property Title) technology, which is expected to become more widespread with Metaverse, digital assets owned by a person are provided with a unique key. In this way, the use, traceability and permanence of the same digital assets within a single metaverse, which can be expressed with multiple virtual worlds in the current situation and integrated virtual worlds in the future, will be ensured. With this solution, which includes blockchain technology as its infrastructure and has a decentralized feature, it will be possible to minimize the copyright problems experienced in today's internet.
In order for Metaverse to be used effectively by wider audiences; There are significant developments in immersive realism, accessibility from anywhere, interoperability and scalability. With these developments, a suitable basis will be prepared for the full transition from independent virtual worlds to an integrated 3D virtual world network, or Metaverse.
Turksat A.Ş. As a requirement of our vision of being a leader in its region and a leading company in the world in information and communication services, we closely follow the new developments and tendencies taking place today and carry out R&D studies. In this context, transformation projects are being worked on so that users can access the services they need by talking to the virtual assistant avatar in Metaverse.
The Future of the Metaverse
Although we have a long way to go before a unified, single Metaverse is ready for use, it appears that different virtual worlds are already collaborating to bring this concept to life. When it comes to Metaverse, supported by blockchain infrastructure, further integration of NFT marketplaces and 3D virtual worlds is seen as the next most important goal.
The fact that institutions and organizations in our country take part in Metaverse as pioneers and gain a strong place in the virtual worlds they can create by working together will be an important legacy that we will leave to future generations within the framework of the digital Turkey vision studies.