In our latest podcast episode, our host Alex Wunschel talks to Oliver Busch, Director for the DACH region at Facebook/Meta. Facebook sees its mission as making the world more open and connected. To that end, people should be able to initiate or maintain contact with each other, share content, discover interesting facts from around the world, and discuss them with other people. The metaverse is a fresh vision from the company, designed to help achieve its mission.
But the metaverse and the Meta company are not the same thing. Although many people believe that Meta wants to use the creation of this new reality to dominate the Web, it’s not actually possible for one company alone to develop the metaverse as a three-dimensional version of the Internet. Creating and developing the metaverse requires a huge amount of research and development, but also a large volume of actual hardware and software for both the B2B sector and for each individual user. That’s beyond the capacity of any one company – but Meta intends to play an active role.
"The metaverse is transforming the Internet from a two-dimensional world into a three-dimensional one. And that's going to take years and even decades to happen. It follows the principle of the Internet, it'll become a composite of all the different individual components and destinations, and I'll be able to move freely between them." – Oliver Busch, Director DACH at Meta.
It’s already possible to explore and try out sections of the metaverse today. Many social media apps offer augmented reality features in conjunction with your smartphone’s camera, so that you can practically bring the Internet to you. For example, you can find furniture online and try it out virtually in your home, take a picture of your face and test makeup on it, or see what new glasses look like before you buy them.
The gaming world has really adopted these developments, and millions of players are already using their desktops to access three-dimensional worlds where they can be active, play games, get to know each other, and share experiences.
"But that's just the start. These are all little bits of the bigger vision, and we're all taking huge strides to make it happen."
They also discuss the following questions:
- Which devices will move us closer to the metaverse?
- How important is social acceptance for progress?
- What is Meta developing for the metaverse?
- How can I get more closely involved with the topic as a brand/company?
- Where can our DMEXCO podcast listeners find more information about the metaverse?
Happy listening!
