The term’metaverse’ is a hot topic in the ICT industry. With the metaverse that becomes a hyper-connected digital world that combines reality and virtual space, stories such as the platform after the Internet web and the digital trend connecting SNS come one after another.
It first appeared in the science fiction genre novel’Snow Crash’ 30 years ago as a term referring to a three-dimensional virtual space connected online. In the novel, it meant a space where you could enter as an’avatar’, which means a virtual body. Looking back, I portrayed the digital world at an early age, but it was forgotten for a while.
The reason that led the metaverse to a new concept in the digital world began with the rise of technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Before the metaverse became a hot topic, VR, AR, and hologram were first attracted attention as technologies that enable realistic content.
As many digital transformations are accelerating in recent years, Metaverse is also in the spotlight in the era of Corona 19. The concept of metaverse spread as most of the communication moved to a non-face-to-face space, even if they were close. At the end of last year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Hwang lit a fire saying, “The metaverse will become a virtual reality space behind the Internet.”
■ Interaction between virtual and reality that appeared in novels 30 years ago
Metaverse is a compound word of Meta, meaning transcendence, and Universe, meaning the universe or the world. As used in Snow Crash, rather than simply a virtual space, it is used to mean a way in which the reality and the virtual are connected and the two spaces actively interact.
For those who are familiar with the culture of the post-2000s, Cyworld’s mini-me can be accepted as a similar concept. The way of creating a room on your own homepage, placing your avatar, and communicating with friends connected through’Ilchon’ resembles the basic appearance of the metaverse.
For the current younger generation, called the MZ generation, the game’Fort Knight’ is quick to understand the metaverse. BTS’ music video choreography was first unveiled in the game, and users followed BTS’ dance with game characters. Rapper Travis Scott’s concert was also held in Fortnite, and nearly 30 million people enjoyed the in-game performance.
■ Era of going online instead of outside the house
It can be thought of as a space where multiple people are connected, like social media online. Nevertheless, the reason why it is considered a hot topic in the ICT industry is that the speed of metaverse penetration into the public is very fast.
With the metaverse, the social environment of the corona era cannot be left out. This is because, in the era of non-face-to-face daily use, the market demands that all technologies are remote, and users are forced to become familiar with remote connection services.
The work we had to do together turned into video conferencing, and school classes took place online. It turned out to be normal for most activities to be done in a remote, non-face-to-face manner. Since people cannot gather, the performance industry has also turned to a digital space that allows interaction like a metaverse beyond simple one-way broadcasting.
Of course, the heterogeneity of the digital space is also due to the combination of rapid development of VR and AR technologies and communication infrastructure such as 5G and Giga Internet. In the era where everyone has a smartphone, access to virtual spaces has increased, and the metaverse has come to reality from science fiction novels.
■ There is a generation who is familiar with the metaverse
On the 2nd, SK Telecom implemented the Soonchunhyang University entrance ceremony in the’Jump VR’ app. The entrance ceremony was not simply carried out in a one-way relay method in the VR app, but the actual appearance of the school’s main playground was decorated in a virtual space, and 2,500 new students were able to gather with their avatars.
Earlier last year, UC Berkeley students couldn’t hold a graduation ceremony on campus due to Corona, so they set up their own campus inside the game’Minecraft’, held a virtual graduation ceremony, and broadcast the game over the Internet.
It is worth seeing that the metaverse space will be familiarly accepted by the generation who enter college and graduate.
Naipjet’s ZEPETO app does not fall for metaverse stories in Korea. The ZEPETO app, which has 200 million subscribers with over 90% of its overseas share, is considered the first example of Metaverse in Korea. There were 46 million people at the fan signing event of idol Black Pink held on the ZEPETO app.
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