Sparkling fashion vs 1700 trillion growth…

Collaborating on the mixed reality platform’Mesh’ released by Microsoft. [사진 마이크로소프트]

LG Electronics announced on the 21st that it will start marketing OLED TVs using Nintendo’s switch game’Gather, Animal Forest’. Animal Forest is a communication game in which virtual characters decorate a village and interact with neighbors.

The US’s current affairs weekly Time estimates, “It provided relaxation of mind to many people during the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19),” and it was also listed as one of the world’s top 100 inventions last year. LG Electronics creates an’Old Island’ in the animal forest, and provides gamers an opportunity to experience an all-red TV decorated with sports, movie, and game concepts.

American Eden Gabronsky, 20, made 49,000 dollars (about 55 million won) last month. This is the profit from selling items such as clothes and weapons in the action game’Bad Business’ that he made. Gabronsky made games easily using development tools (tools) provided for free by the virtual world platform’Roblox’. Just as YouTuber uploads a video and then shares advertising revenue with YouTube, Roblox gives developers a virtual currency called’Robox’.

Global companies are’ride’ one after another in the’metaverse’ where virtual and reality are mixed. It’s more than just a passenger, it’s a fight over who gets the steering wheel. Metaverse is a compound word of’meta’, which means processing and abstraction, and’universe’, which refers to the real world, and refers to the’three-dimensional (3D) virtual world’.

It first appeared in the American author Neil Stevenson’s science fiction novel Snow Crash in 1992. Recently, new technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), and fifth-generation (5G) communications are growing the market.

Roblox homepage capture

First, the financial market was shaken. Roblox, which has been regarded as a representative of Metaverse, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange on the 10th (local time), and investors’ interest is rising. As of the 19th, the market capitalization was 38.8 billion dollars (about 43.86 trillion won), beating Electronic Arts (36.9 billion dollars) famous for the game of’The Sims”Battlefield’. A lot of money flocked to ZEPETO, the representative platform in Korea. Big Hit invested 12 billion won and JYP invested 5 billion won. It can be interpreted as investing in’future possibility’ from the fact that there are about 200 million cumulative users and 80% of users are teenagers within 3 years of launch.

The market is also growing. In just over a year, more than 30 million people from all over the world have joined the Animal Forest. This is the reason why LG Electronics’moved into the animal forest’ for the first time in the home appliance industry, saying, “We will create an all-red fandom.” 55% of the American Generation Z (young people born after 2000) enjoy Roblox. It is also getting closer to consumers. Representatively, the price of’immersive devices’ such as VR and AR has fallen. The VR device’Oculus Quest 2’is selling for $299 (about 330,000 won) even though the performance has improved.

The metaverse is approaching before your eyes. Graphic = Reporter Kim Kyung-jin [email protected]

Experts predict that Metaverse will use complex technologies to increase its socio-economic impact. PwC, a global accounting consulting company, predicts that the XR market, which forms the technological basis of Metaverse, will grow from about 537 trillion won in 2025 to about 1700 trillion won in 2030.

Accordingly, the movement of global companies is active. Nvidia’s’Omnibus’, which was released in October last year, is a platform that allows you to quickly realize a real-life virtual world. Workers who create three-dimensional (3D) animations and self-driving cars can work in real life and access virtual offices at the same time. Microsoft (MS) also recently introduced’Mesh’, a mixed reality (MR) platform. If you wear the’Holo Lens 2′, which is MS’s MR headset device, and connect to the mesh, you can meet and chat with a distant colleague in the form of a’digital avatar’.

Metaverse’s revenue model evolution. Graphic = Reporter Jaemin Shin [email protected]

Metaverse’s profit model is evolving toward connecting with the real world, from selling game items to providing marketing solutions and holding e-commerce and concerts. Lee Seung-hwan, head of the Intelligent Data Research Team at the Software Policy Research Institute, said, “The recent metaverse is breaking down the boundaries between reality and virtual by creating synergy with new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), XR, and 5G. “I looked out.

On the other hand, there is also pessimism that it can only be curiosity or excitement. It is pointed out that it cannot become a’popularity’ just because it has gained reflection profits from Corona 19. Already in 2003, Linden Lab of the United States introduced a 3D virtual world service called’Second Life’, but it failed. In Korea, there is a cyber singer’Adam’ who appeared in 1998. At that time, the album sold about 200,000 copies and made about 500 million won in advertising revenue, but it was only sparkling.

Reporter Kwon Yujin [email protected]