Xinhua News Agency: The metaverse is a new type of internet application and social form that integrates various new technologies such as blockchain

Author: Ma Xiaocheng (Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Insight" reporter)

Original title: “How Far Are We from the Metaverse”

Recently, Xinhua News Agency published an article about the metaverse, in which Shen Yang, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication, believes that the metaverse is a new type of internet application and social form that integrates various new technologies. It provides immersive experiences based on extended reality technology and generates a mirror of the real world through digital twin technology. It builds an economic system through blockchain technology, closely integrating the virtual world with the real world in economic systems, social systems, and identity systems, while allowing each user to produce and edit content.

1. How Far Are We from the Metaverse
Recently, the metaverse has become a hot topic in the tech and investment circles. Companies like Tencent and ByteDance have entered related fields, while foreign tech companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, and Nvidia have also laid out their plans. Many interviewees believe that the metaverse, as a carrier of the integration of the virtual and real worlds, contains huge opportunities for transformation in social, content, gaming, and office scenarios.
What exactly is the metaverse? What does it mean for the internet? What kind of "parallel world" will it create?
Devices, applications, games… tech companies are all laying out their metaverse strategies.
In March of this year, Roblox, a metaverse concept stock invested by Tencent, saw a significant rise on its first day of trading. Its multiplayer online creation game "Roblox" combines the virtual world, casual gaming, and user-generated content. As early as the end of last year, Tencent's chairman and CEO Ma Huateng wrote in an internal publication that "an exciting opportunity is coming. After a decade of development in mobile internet, we are about to welcome the next wave of upgrades, which we call the true internet."
In August of this year, ByteDance acquired the Chinese virtual reality device company Pico. In April, ByteDance invested in the metaverse concept company "Code Qian Kun." Additionally, companies like NetEase, Lilith, and miHoYo have also made moves related to the metaverse.
In addition to internet giants and gaming companies, some startups have also made early layouts.
Two years ago, when Hu Wen, the founder of Chanjing Technology, started a company in Nansha, Guangzhou, with two classmates, they did not expect that in just two years, a global tech trend—the metaverse—would emerge. Now, they are building the "digital foundation" of the metaverse, converting the real world into a "digital language" that computers can recognize, and overlaying various virtual applications on this basis.
For example: Standing atop the already constructed Mingzhu Development Building in Nansha District, Guangzhou, one can overlook the still-developing Ling Shan Island at Mingzhu Bay. However, through virtual reality devices or tablets, people can clearly see buildings that have been planned but not yet constructed overlaid in a 1:1 ratio on the existing real scene—this is a "mirror world" created by Chanjing Technology for the local government.
"Through the construction of the metaverse, information from the real world will be greatly supplemented by the virtual world, and the interaction between humans and the virtual world will be significantly enhanced. Based on this, business models full of imaginative space will emerge, leading to qualitative changes in gaming, socializing, entertainment, and consumption," Hu Wen said.
Internationally, tech companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and Nvidia are all laying out their plans. On October 28, local time, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would be renamed META to focus on metaverse business. In recent years, Facebook has made significant investments in virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, developing hardware products such as virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, and smartwatches.
In May of this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that the company is working to create an "enterprise metaverse." In August, image processing and AI chip manufacturer Nvidia announced the launch of the world's first simulation and collaboration platform to support the establishment of the metaverse.
2. Underlying Technologies Becoming More Mature, Reality and Virtuality Closely Integrated
So, what exactly is the metaverse?
The concept of the metaverse first appeared in 1992 in American author Neal Stephenson's science fiction novel "Snow Crash." The novel depicts a virtual digital world parallel to the real world—the "metaverse." In the real world, people have a virtual avatar in the "metaverse," and they compete with each other through controlling this avatar to improve their status.

In fact, there is currently no widely accepted authoritative definition of the metaverse in the tech community. Professor Shen Yang from Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication believes that the metaverse is a new type of internet application and social form that integrates various new technologies. It provides immersive experiences based on extended reality technology and generates a mirror of the real world through digital twin technology. It builds an economic system through blockchain technology, closely integrating the virtual world with the real world in economic systems, social systems, and identity systems, while allowing each user to produce and edit content.
When explaining why the company changed its name, Zuckerberg visually demonstrated the future of the metaverse in a video: one can create a virtual "home," invite familiar people for socializing, wear devices to enter a virtual workspace to work with colleagues, and even create a virtual world…
Hu Wen believes that the popularity of the metaverse concept this year is not accidental. After years of brewing, the applications of underlying technologies such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data, 5G communications, and wearable devices have become increasingly mature, making the creation of the metaverse possible.
Zuo Pengfei, a deputy researcher at the Institute of Quantitative Economics and Technical Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that there are profound economic and social reasons behind the metaverse boom—the mobile internet dividend has peaked and begun to decline. The metaverse, as a carrier of the integration of the virtual and real worlds, contains huge opportunities for transformation in social, content, gaming, and office scenarios. Traditional digital tech companies and emerging startups all want to seize future opportunities in this field.
A recent report titled "2020-2021 Metaverse Development Research Report" released by Tsinghua University's New Media Research Center believes that 2020 was a critical point for the virtualization of human society, laying the groundwork for 2021 to become the first year of the metaverse. On one hand, the pandemic accelerated social virtualization. Under the COVID-19 prevention measures, the total online time of society increased significantly, and the "stay-at-home economy" developed rapidly. On the other hand, online life transitioned from a temporary exception to a norm, becoming a parallel world to the real world. Human real life began to migrate massively to the virtual world, making humans "amphibious species" between reality and digital.
3. How Far Are We from the Metaverse
Many internationally renowned consulting firms are optimistic about the future of the metaverse. For example, a Bloomberg industry research report predicts that the metaverse will reach an $800 billion market size by 2024, while PwC estimates that the market size of the metaverse will reach $1.5 trillion by 2030.
Although the prospects are enticing, most interviewees believe that the current metaverse industry is still in its early stages. Based on the current conditions of computing power, network technology, and extended reality, the industry still needs 10 to 20 years of development time.
Shen Yang believes that the current metaverse industry is in its initial development stage, characterized by the immaturity and instability of emerging industries. There are still many uncertainties in the metaverse, and both the industry and the market urgently need to return to rationality.
Zuo Pengfei believes that under the combined effect of technological upgrades and demand upgrades, the realization of metaverse scenarios is only a matter of time, and it also represents the future direction. He suggests that China should support the development of the metaverse industry from the aspects of technology, standards, applications, and laws.
"From a technological perspective, the limitations of technology are the biggest bottleneck facing the development of the metaverse in China, especially the underlying structural information technologies such as mobile communications, big data, and artificial intelligence need to be improved. China should increase investment in basic information technology research and development, encourage and support relevant enterprises to strengthen basic research, enhance technological innovation capabilities, and steadily improve technological maturity," Zuo Pengfei said.
Industry insiders suggest that at the legal level, it is important to summarize and refine governance experiences in the development process of online platforms, strengthen forward-looking legislative research on the metaverse, and pay attention to issues such as regulatory review and data security.