Only if you are living under a rock, you would have not come across the term ‘metaverse’. Thanks to the giant social media company Facebook announcing its rebranding as ‘Meta Platforms’, even the most non tech-savvy person in the world knows a little about the concept of the metaverse today.

For the uninitiated, metaverse means an immersive virtual world where the boundaries between the real and the virtual world are blurred, giving you a phygital experience. While fundamentally it will still be you who will be making the choices, they will be represented by your digital avatars in the virtual environment.

When Facebook says it is going to be Meta-First now, it doesn’t mean that the metaverse will be owned by them. It simply means, you will be able to enter this universe with Facebook's Oculus VR headsets. They are already developing Horizon Workrooms, an app where Oculus-sporting employees can enter and conduct virtual meetings. Nick Clegg, Facebook’s VP of global affairs said that he already conducts his Monday meetings in this professional office metaverse which includes virtual tables and whiteboards.

In this blog, we try to understand why Facebook has taken the initiative to be in the forefront of this internet evolution, what it means to them, and how significant it is going to be for the world at large.

Staying True To The Idea Of Connecting People

Mark started with the simple idea of creating a platform where people could connect with their loved ones easily. Now, Facebook has become a globally recognized, one of its kind brand. With Meta, he aims to do the same.

It will be a place where people can connect and find communities of their liking. He says, while other companies focused on how people interacted with technology, Facebook believed in building technology which will help people connect better. At the core, it will always be about creating effective ways to help people connect with each other.

For Mark, creating a virtual set up where people can interact is more than a fancy vision. It is a necessity.

Natural Engagement Within The Realm Of The Internet

In his words, the metaverse will be the successor of the mobile internet where the metaverse will be an ‘embodied internet’. This means you can feel the presence and engage with the internet in a more natural way. It is going to be a hybrid model of the social media platforms we see today, but the presence will be really felt when you engage with them in the metaverse.

Reality Labs, a team in the company, primarily focuses on improving the quality of the metaverse, which means, improving the ‘presence factor’ in the metaverse.

Immersive Capabilities To Create Real-Life Experiences

Mark says, we are not meant to interact with people via grids on screens. That is not how we are meant to process the information. In the absence of shared space, it becomes difficult to have a fulfilling and rich conversation.

He already has virtual meetings where it feels like they are sitting next to each other. According to him, the future will have meetings and conversations with holograms, multiple screen sharing abilities, and even a virtual whiteboard for people to use simultaneously. When AR glasses are developed and VR capabilities are improved, people will be able to enter a coffee shop and pull up their workstations. Instead of sharing information over the phone, their colleagues’ avatars could teleport to the current location, gather information, and go back to their original location.

He also claims, while virtual reality will be an important part, the metaverse won’t be limited to it. People will be able to access it on their mobile devices, gaming consoles, PC, etc.

Creating More Opportunities For People
There's research which states that your future mobility and income is highly dependent on the zip code you were brought up in. Mark thinks this goes against the idea of creating equal opportunities for all.
He believes the metaverse will create ample opportunities for artists, digital commerce, people who wish to explore opportunities beyond their physical locations, etc. According to him, a realized metaverse could be the next best thing to a teleportation device.

In his interview with The Verge, he says, “One lesson that I’ve taken from running Facebook over the last five years is that I used to think about our job as building products that people love to use. But you know, now I think we just need to have a more holistic view of this. It’s not enough to just build something that people like to use. It has to create opportunity and broadly be a positive thing for society in terms of economic opportunity, in terms of being something that, socially, everyone can participate in, that it can be inclusive.”

While the announcement happened this year, the work towards it began way back in 2014 when they purchased Palmer Luckey’s Oculus, a VR headset maker for almost $2 billion. They went on to acquire more than half a dozen VR-based startups, and the most recent being Within which is an LA-based boutique game developer.

Key Takeaways:

For Mark Zuckerberg, it is always going to be about creating better ways for people to connect with each other. After successfully creating Facebook as a globally recognised brand, he now aims to do the same with Meta.
People are already engaging in high numbers in the digital world. Mark aims to make it more natural where you can feel the presence of being around people even in the virtual world.
He believes while virtual reality will be an important part to create immersive experiences, the Metaverse will also be accessible via mobile devices, PC, etc.
The Metaverse will open up more opportunities for people across the globe and he thinks it is essential to develop something more than just a product. A gateway to holistic economic and inclusive opportunities should be the goal.

Mark Zuckerberg hopes that in the next 5 years, people will recognize them as a Meta-First company. Meta, a Greek-origin word basically means going beyond. For Mark this means, there’s always something more than the current to build and develop.

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