All Things Metaverse! Four Industries Expected to Be Impacted by the Metaverse

When Neil Stephenson wrote his science fiction novel "Snow Crash" in 1992, he probably would not have imagined that the virtual world existed in his imagination—the Metaverse—would seep into the real world after 30 years. In October 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced the renaming of Facebook to Meta​, which opened the year of the Metaverse. While his ambitions of Metaverse, which lost $2.8 billion in Q2 2022, seem to be a bubble, more and more companies are entering the space.

This year, the world's top financial service companies such as MUFG​, Visa, Worldline​, Franklin Templeton​, Ebay​, KPMG, and Standard Chartered​ have joined the ranks of exploration to seek new opportunities for development in metaverse.

Metaverse is now still an emerging concept that keeps developing. In addition to financial-related industries, other fields have also begun to explore an emerging development model of "Metaverse +", so as to integrate related technologies and industries to a certain extent, and give new vitality to the real economy. This article will introduce you to the 4 industries that are most closely related to the Metaverse apart from financial industry: games, art, tourism and education.

1. Metaverse + Games

The game industry is known as "the industry closest to the metaverse", and it is also generally considered the most likely starting field for the metaverse. As a virtual world built by people based on the simulation, extension, and unconstrained imagination of reality, the game is similar to the metaverse in its product form, making the game sector the most likely track to build the prototype of the metaverse.

Currently, the metaverse-based virtual ecosystem is the latest development trend in the gaming industry. In March 2021, the online game creation platform Roblox was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and firstly included the metaverse in a company's prospectus. Players can design and develop their own games on the platform, and obtain game currency that can be exchanged for real currency through selling, thus building a connected economic system between the virtual world and the real world.

In addition, metaverse games such as the play to earn game Axie Infinity, the virtual world building game The Sandbox, and the virtual land buying and selling game Decentraland have also begun to accelerate their development, becoming more and more familiar to players. The virtual land in the metaverse game has even affected the real estate industry.

2. Metaverse + Art

Metaverse allows art to expand and extend in a variety of ways, ranging from the overall construction of digital museums and immersive art exhibitions to the development of small works of art and digital collections, all these have broken through the traditional forms of art presentation and shaped a new art experience with diverse interactions. Digital collections not only allow consumers to have close access to art, but also create new commercial increments, further stimulating the innovative vitality of art.

NFT art based on digital art is now becoming the new favorite of hot art and capital. NFT is a tradable digital artwork, which makes good use of blockchain technology and solves the problem of uniqueness of virtual items. One of the most popular NFT collections right now is Bored Ape Yacht Club featuring unique ape images.

In addition, museums, galleries, and technology companies have begun to join forces to create "Metaverse Experience" and build digital exhibition halls. In January 2021, The Metropolitan Museum ("The Met") of Art and Verizon launched The Met Unframed, an immersive virtual art and gaming experience with enhancements powered by Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband and featuring more than a dozen one-of-a-kind digitally rendered galleries and nearly 50 works of art from across The Met's vast collection. Users can access the experience from any 4G or 5G smart device, and watch the objects come alive in AR.

3. Metaverse + Tourism

The purpose of tourism is to experience different cultures in different places. However, with the spread of COVID-19, people's desire to travel has dropped sharply, and the tourism industry has been hit hard. The emergence of the Metaverse provides people with a brand new way of traveling.

Recently, The Spanish city of Cuenca and content generation platform "SIX3D METAVERSE" have launched "Cuenca Land", a virtual replica of the city in the Metaverse, to broaden the reach and promote tourism in the region. "Cuenca Land" recreates different spaces in the city's Old Town, such as Plaza Mayor, San Pablo Bridge, Casa del Corregidor or Severo Catalina Street, through which the different avatars can move and interact. 

Singapore, China and other countries are also actively developing metaverse scenic spots. In Nov. 2021, a famous Chinese sightseeing spot Zhangjiajie, where Hollywood blockbuster Avatar was shot, claimed to be "the world's first scenic spot metaverse research and development (R&D) center" with aspirations to build the world of Avatar. The test version of the metaverse platform "Zhangjiajie Planet" was officially released in Hunan, China a year later, and the aution of the naming right of the world's first virtual monntain was opened at the same time.

4. Metaverse + Education

The spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic forced humanity to rethink how to teach and learn. The metaverse, a 3D digital space mixed with the real world and the virtual world, has been heralded as a trend of future education with great potential.

Actually, the application of Metaverse in the education field has already appeared under the epidemic. ACAI, one of the world's top AI academic conferences, held its 2020 seminar on Nintendo's "Animal Crossing Club"; The Communication University of China rebult the campus in the sandbox game "Minecraft" and invited students dressed as game characters to complete their graduation ceremony, one of the most important rituals in their college life.

It is said that Metaverse can improve education efficiency and inspire students' study interests, as well as save education costs. With the progress of the metaverse technology and the acceleration of education informatization's process, the construction of the education metaverse will become a general trend.