Just as soon as Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Facebook Metaverse in 2021, the social networking giant has its sights set on becoming a leading “metaverse company.” But what exactly is metaverse meaning? Where are the features of Metaverse? And more importantly, what are the effects of Metaverse on live streaming? Let’s find out here.
In this Article:
🌌 What is Metaverse?
A metaverse is a shared, online 3D space where users can connect with friends, create and play games, work, shop, and host concerts and live shows via computer-generated objects and avatars. So, it’s a digital world where real humans are replaced with digital avatars to make things even more exciting. In this way, the metaverse serves its true meaning of Meta=Beyond. Just like we have multiple universes in the cosmos, including the one we live in, the metaverse offers us a parallel digital universe to enrich our digital interactions.
Microsoft Team and Zoom have already taken the lead with their video conferencing apps using Ant Media Servers in their video infrastructures. You may choose to represent yourself as a static picture, an avatar, or even a live video while you’re virtually present in the room.
Here’s a sneak peek into the Metaverse market growth trends, which is predicted to hit the $800 billion mark by 2024. Of the major trends within the metaverse, live entertainment will bank the major chunk of the expected revenue.
(Source: Bloomberg)
Metaverses are used for diverse purposes, including social networking, online gaming, shopping, education, live streaming, training, etc. It is a universe of limitless, interconnected virtual communities where people can socialize, collaborate, and have fun using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps, and other technologies.
⚙️ Features of Metaverse
Metaverse incorporates several interesting features that make this digital universe exciting and appealing to the senses.
🤵♂️ Avatars
Digital avatars rule the metaverse as an innovative means to expressing one’s emotions in a unique fashion. Each person owns a distinct digital identity in the metaverse, which can be both static and animated. The concept of gamification is introduced when the users modify their avatars to create a more engaging and dynamic experience.
🌄 Virtual Lands (Parcels)
You can purchase land in the metaverse using cryptocurrencies. This land is essentially a non-fungible token (NFT) that you cannot trade for any other asset. You can interact with digital storefronts, games, etc. using this land.
🥽 Immersive Experience
You can enjoy a truly immersive experience in the metaverse via Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). This is like bringing your social interactions to life, be it games or social or educational encounters.
⛓️ Blockchain-Based Operations
Using blockchain technology, you can protect your virtual assets and create a digital proof of ownership. This is essential to ensure data security and validity in the metaverse.
🤖 Artificial Intelligence (AI)
When you’re in the metaverse, you fundamentally intersect with the AI in several realms; self-supervised speech processing, computer vision, robotic interactions, posture estimation, etc.
♾️ Creator Economy
As more and more people spend time in the immersive digital environment of the metaverse, there is a pressing demand for digital goods and services, hence the need for a creator economy. This could potentially lead to new forms of commerce, such as virtual tourism and virtual real estate. The use of NFTs is one of the most evolving trends in the creator economy.
📣 The Importance of Metaverse in Live Streaming
As the COVID-19 pandemic paved the path for digital innovation, live streaming has dramatically evolved with widescale applications in literally every field of life. Be it online learning, virtual meetings, and conferences, online gaming, virtual social gatherings, or digital marketing, people use live streaming to connect with each other beyond the concepts of space and time.
Online video gaming remains the most notable trend within the metaverse, amplified during the pandemic and fuelled by generational trends. Deloitte found that a whopping 87% of Gen Z, 83% of Millennials, and 79% of Gen X actively play video games every week. Even when they’re not playing games, they’re still streaming music. So, people are generally actively involved in various formats of live entertainment at an increasing pace. That said, media companies and digital marketers are adopting a diversified approach to capitalize upon the power of this fluid and multifaceted entertainment to attract these user sets.
🧒 John’s Typical Aay in the Metaverse
John woke up late this Monday morning. He put up his 3D avatar and rushed into work meetings with his team on Microsoft Teams. As the day progressed, John got caught up in the mundane tasks, but during his lunch break, John played his favorite 3D video game Roblox, and live streamed his gameplay on his YouTube and Twitch channels. He was joined by hundreds of fans, and he banked quite a few handsome bucks there. Later in the evening, John treated himself to Justin Bieber’s Metaverse show, with his avatar dancing amongst thousands of other heads in the audience. As the concert finished, his favorite singer lauded, “Don’t forget to buy a t-shirt from the link below”. Excited enough, John browsed through the product carousel, bought the t-shirt, and paid up through a cryptocurrency. He wore the same t-shirt at the virtual meeting the next day. Thankfully he woke up well in time to get dressed.
👉 Did you notice how streaming technologies are transforming our everyday lives, even in the simplest of scenarios? That’s what the metaverse is all about.
📌 Final Word
Metaverse is certainly where Gen Z and the successors are expected to spend most of their time, whether for work or leisure. Offering a better and more immersive communication system, the metaverse will soon be used for simulating life-like environments for health, virtual learning, marketing, and much more. However, as pessimism calls it, overstimulation of the physical senses might be overwhelming and over-addictive, and people might lose all track of time and other aspects of the real world. Also, as people become hooked on the metaverse, it might increase social disparity since it requires tech-savvy gadgets and capable hardware, which might not be accessible to all.
Metaverse will dramatically change how we consume content and therefore live streaming!
Dive into the metaverse with live streaming!
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