Like any new and emerging technology, the Metaverse has faced its share of challenges and criticisms. A year after Facebook’s rebrand to Meta, the Metaverse has been the source of much attention, but not necessarily for the right reasons.
On one end, Meta, which is struggling to deliver its vision for the Metaverse and balancing the massive expense it requires, with its declining core business. Layoffs, technology difficulties and expensive hardware didn’t massively help build a positive story.
On the other hand, there’s been instances where existing virtual worlds, like Decentraland, have been empty of users, in some cases, down to 38 active users in a day (that stats was later rebutted by the company, and still, perception is reality). And there’s there’s of course the tarnishing of everything crypto and web3 related thanks to scams and public collapses like the FTX saga.
However, in reality the Metaverse is still in its early stages of development, and yet, we already can see positive examples of its impact.
Into the Metaverse event in London
To shine a light on the opportunities and challenges presented by the fledgling Metaverse, we (Remagine Ventures) partnered with Taylor Wessing in London to produce “Into the Metaverse”. The event took place on November 2nd 2022, and shared diverse perspectives from founders, investors and strategics on what works already, where is there user adoption, and what challenges (many!) remain to be solved.
All the videos from the event, as well as our newly published landscape of the UK startups building the Metaverse can be found here.
Main takeaways from “Into the Metaverse”
The event opened with a presentation by Hamza Khan, a Partner at McKinsey & Company and author of the “Value creation in the metaverse” report shared it will take time for VR to become mainstream and enable “fully immersive 3D worlds” but there’s a ton of innovation happening in web 2.5 NOW. And the Internet is moving in that direction – more immersive, social, participatory.
From the brands and platforms panel:
- Lorne Sugarman (Metaverse Group) shared how brands are actively experimenting now across platforms for PR, engagement and profit
- Esther O’Callaghan OBE (meta?sther.eth) talked about the potential of the Metaverse to create social impact (check out www.Hundo.xyz)
- Leanne Eliott-Young (Institute of Digital Fashion) commented on how fashion brands leaning in to engage with younger customers Roblox
From the Money in the Metaverse (crypto and web3 finance) panel
- Samuel Huber (LandVault) discussed the importance of onboarding and increasing participation
- Nathalie Oestmann (Outlier Ventures) touched on the infrastructure being built to go from web2 to web3
- Alex Batlin (Bitpanda Custody) shared the challenge of protecting digital assets
From the gaming – the first frontier of the Metaverse panel:
- Cherry Freeman (Hiro Capital) on looking to invest in the underlying tech that makes immersive gaming possible
- Simon Barratt (Cooperative Innovations Ltd) talked about how far the tech has come to create amazing games/ experiences
- Jack Everitt (THNDR GAMES) shared the benefits of combining crypto and gaming ?
Finally, Faisal Galaria, CEO of Blippar closed the event with a live demo of the company’s No code AR builder – so simple even a kid can do it (try it at https://lnkd.in/eRAXUCq8)
Other themes covered:
– The creator economy
– Meta and it’s current woes
– Open vs close Metaverse
– The importance of content, and how new tools like generative AI can help
– Regulations and legal challenges (more coming!)
– Many examples of brands experimenting with the Metaverse
– The many challenges that remain to be solved (technical challenges, security and privacy, legal ethical and social issues, etc)
As the underlying technology for the Metaverse continues to evolve, we will see more and more use cases brought to life across verticals. As the FT recently published, while the Metaverse may have started with consumers and games, it’s possible that the real potential for the metaverse might emerge in medicine, emergency planning and energy transition.
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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