In the second half of last year, when the "Metaverse" was the most popular, the price of a virtual land plot abroad was even higher than a villa in Beijing.
However, according to WeMeta platform data recently, some virtual land has plummeted by more than 80%.
A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily found that the collapse of virtual real estate is only a corner of the "metaverse" world. The capital market is used to cut leeks, Ponzi schemes, copyright entanglements... The world of "metaverse" is quite unstable.
But on the other hand, following the entry of domestic and foreign Internet giants into the "Metaverse" since 2021, the "Metaverse" has recently attracted the attention of Shanghai, Zhejiang and other places, and has appeared in relevant documents and reports.
"Metaverse" has once again become a hot spot in the Internet industry and capital market, and how to regulate and supervise its development has also become a new topic.
event
After the 90% plunge, the listed company Metaverse virtual real estate was accused of "harvesting leeks"
"In the second half of last year, when the Metaverse was the most popular, I spent 10,000 yuan to buy a house in Hongyu Universe, but now I can't sell it for 1,000 yuan. Let's just spend money to buy a lesson." August 20, early Bike1001, a player in the Metaverse Real Estate Speculator, admitted to the Beiqing Daily reporter that his investment in the Metaverse had completely failed, and he was "cut with leeks".
When the Metaverse was the hottest in the second half of last year, the price of a virtual land plot abroad was even higher than that of a villa in Beijing.
In November 2021, singer JJ Lin announced that he had purchased three virtual plots of land on the Decentraland platform, costing a total of more than $70,000 (about 500,000 RMB).
However, according to WeMeta platform data recently, the current valuation of the three pieces of virtual land purchased by Lin Junjie is only 97,500 yuan, a plunge of more than 80%.
The latest data from the metaverse analysis platform WeMeta shows that the price of virtual land in the six major metaverse platforms will drop significantly in 2022. The average price will drop from about $17,000 in January this year to about $2,500 in August, a drop of 85% within six months. .
The overall number of sales also fell from 16,000 last year to 2,000 in August this year, a drop of 87.5%.
In November last year, a reporter from Beiqing Daily reported "Behind the asking price of 100,000 yuan for "Metaverse" real estate with an original price of 88 yuan. At that time, the A-share listed company Tianxiaxiu launched an app "Hongyuyu".
After downloading the app, users can create a 3D virtual image in the rainbow universe, have their own 3D virtual house, and carry out social activities and life.
The APP displays 13 types of houses in detail. The circulation and scarcity of each house type are different. The grades of houses are divided into SSS, SS, S, A, B, and C grades from high to low. The higher the grade, the rarer.
Prices range from 8.88 yuan to 88 yuan and even higher.
"My Star Property Certificate" includes the land and properties you own on the app, and a world ranking based on the number of properties you own.
In "Rainbow Universe", you can decorate your own house and visit other people's houses.
On November 18 last year, Li Meng, the founder of Tianxia Show, released an open letter titled "Towards the Next Decade to Make Connections More Valuable".
In the letter, Li Meng officially introduced the company's 3D virtual social product "Hong Universe" based on blockchain technology, and said that Hong Universe will bring us closer to the ultimate dream of social technology.
Subsequently, the company's stock price rose by the daily limit, and its market value soared by nearly 5 billion yuan.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange subsequently issued a regulatory warning to the company and its responsible persons.
According to the regulatory documents of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the company did not actually participate in the research and development of AR, VR, MR and related hardware technologies, nor did it have relevant hardware technology reserves or patents during the current period when "Metaverse" and other related products and technologies were highly concerned by the market. The company's main business has not undergone major changes, and the content of the founder's open letter may mislead investors.
After a period of crazy hype, at the end of December last year, second-hand platforms such as Xianyu blocked keywords such as "Hong Universe" and "Virtual Real Estate", and removed the content involving transactions.
The official Weibo of Rainbow Universe also issued a document stating that it will focus on monitoring all violations and illegal activities involving private transactions, induced transactions, speculation, fraud, etc. Once found, relevant accounts will be restricted from logging in or prohibited.
A reporter from Beiqing Daily saw in some WeChat and QQ groups that there are still many intermediaries reselling the virtual real estate of Rainbow Universe, but the price has plummeted by 90%. Compared with the previous boom, almost no one cares about virtual real estate today.
"It used to be hard to find a house for 10,000 yuan, but now I can't sell it for 500 yuan." Player let770 told the Beiqing Daily reporter that he had hoarded a few suites in the Rainbow Universe. Hundred times, I didn't expect to be cut off by the listed company.
Now that the bubble has burst, the “family” of the real estate speculators who were excited last year are now dead.
The person in charge of a domestic Metaverse project told the Beiqing Daily reporter that there are two main reasons for the collapse of the virtual real estate of the Metaverse. One is the collapse of the global encrypted assets. The price of the virtual assets of the Metaverse is closely related to the encrypted market. ; Second, these virtual real estates were bombarded, and finally became a game of drumming and passing flowers. When there was no funds to take the last baton, the price plummeted.
In fact, many players who buy these assets are also gambling, but the strict supervision of domestic policies and the limited market recognition of virtual real estate have led to them being quickly abandoned by the market.
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Fabricating the "Virtual Currency + Metaverse" project took the opportunity to absorb public funds to "cut leeks"
The Beiqing Daily reporter noticed that with the popularization of the Metaverse, the concept of "virtual currency + Metaverse" has also been hyped up.
Due to the lack of relevant supervision, many virtual currency companies on the market currently use terms such as big data, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things as gimmicks under the name of the Metaverse, and package "mining" and virtual currency speculation into one. A series of new projects, in order to achieve the purpose of attracting more investors and consumers.
Many ordinary consumers, with the illusion of getting rich overnight, coupled with the attraction of new technological terms, can easily fall into the trap set by criminals.
According to a recent notice issued by the Suining Police in Jiangsu, in early June this year, Ms. Chen's friend recommended the Metaverse Concept Mall to her, and said that by trading the virtual paintings in it, she could earn the middle price difference, which is both simple and high-reward. .
Ms. Chen's heart was moved, and she was soon drawn into the group by her friends. Under the guidance of the "group owner", Ms. Chen began to participate in the sale and purchase of paintings.
She bought it at a low price of 1369 yuan, and then sold it for 2080 yuan. After deducting the 60 yuan listing fee, Ms. Chen earned 651 yuan for the first time.
She made so much money with little effort, which made Ms. Chen taste the sweetness.
In order to make more money, in the next month, she purchased a large number of goods in the mall according to the "group owner"'s instructions.
However, because no one bought the paintings, the paintings on the shelves have been in a state of slow sale, and they have to pay a shelf fee every day.
Repeated reports were unsuccessful, and finally the "group owner" could not be contacted.
It was only at this point that Ms. Chen realized that she had been deceived and lost a total of 2,400 yuan.
She went to the police station to report the case. After preliminary investigation, the police found that the so-called e-commerce platform, which appeared to be an online shopping mall, actually lured customers to invest under the guise of high profits and defrauded investors.
The Suining police pointed out in the routine analysis released that the criminals fabricated false Metaverse investment projects.
Stir up concepts such as game production, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality related to the Metaverse, fabricate high-tech investment projects with many packaging names, publicly and falsely publicize high returns, take the opportunity to absorb public funds to "cut leeks", and use the concept of Metaverse to package The "killing pig disk" and "funding disk" scams are essentially unapproved illegal public financing.
Suining police said that some criminals in disguise were engaged in illegal profit-making of Metaverse virtual currency, claiming that the virtual currency issued would be the future "metaverse currency" to induce the public to buy and invest.
Such "virtual currency" is often the spontaneous air currency of criminals, which mainly makes illegal profits through behind-the-scenes means such as manipulating prices and setting withdrawal thresholds.
On February 18 this year, the Office of the Inter-ministerial Joint Conference on Disposal of Illegal Fund Raising of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Risk Alert on Preventing Illegal Fund Raising in the Name of "Metaverse", stating that recently, some lawbreakers have been stalking hot spots and using "Metaverse Investment Projects" "Metaverse Chain Tour" and other programs absorb funds, and are suspected of illegal fundraising, fraud and other illegal and criminal activities.
Zhu Youping, the rotating chairman of the Blockchain Special Committee of the China Communications Industry Association, said in an interview with the media that the concept of the Metaverse is very popular, but some projects are mixed with game speculation, currency speculation, virtual real estate speculation, etc., which have no value to the economy and society. , on the contrary, it will disrupt the financial market order and infringe public interests.
The capital market frantically hyped "the first share of the Metaverse" just to sell alcohol online?
Starting from the end of 2021, the capital market has set off a crazy hype for the "metaverse" concept stocks. As long as the concept of the "metaverse" is involved, the stock price will rise.
Zhongqingbao, known as the first stock in the Metaverse, has joined hands with Jinsha Ancient Wine to enter the "Metaverse" in a high-profile manner, and the jointly created virtual and realistic fantasy linkage simulation business metaverse game "Brewer Master" was officially launched on February 28, 2022. test.
"Players will travel to China 100 years ago, become the manager of the winery, and manage the winery from the perspective of God. Everything starts from scratch and starts the road to revitalize the winery." After the development plan, its stock price once rose from 8 yuan per share in early September 2021 to 40 yuan per share in mid-November, an increase of up to 400%.
The controlling shareholder and actual controller of Zhongqingbao took the opportunity to issue a reduction announcement to cash out at a high level in the capital market.
According to the official news of Zhongqingbao, the game "Master Brewer" is based on the simulation of operating the "Jinsha Ancient Wine" winery. Players can experience the operation of wineries, winemaking, etc. in the game, and players can refer to themselves offline in the game. Wine brewed "by hand".
Until August 4th, Zhongqingbao said on the interactive platform that the H5 version of "Shenchu Burning Workshop - Brewmaster" has been launched, the first version of the 2D version has been launched, and there will be improved versions to be launched in the future.
A reporter from Beiqing Daily noticed that in order to truly brew a bottle of wine in this game, hard work alone is not enough. You must spend money on a virtual currency called ZQB launched by the platform.
Its store section directly launched a series of Jinsha ancient wines, with prices ranging from 150 yuan to 7999 yuan.
A player of "Wine Master" told the Beiqing Daily reporter that he gave up after playing for half a month. This so-called metaverse game is actually just a gimmick to sell wine online.
While rubbing against the concept of the Metaverse, while reducing its holdings, the operation of Zhongqingbao attracted the attention of the regulatory authorities.
On January 11 this year, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued a letter of concern to Zhongqingbao, requesting Zhongqingbao to explain whether there were repeated intentional rubbing against Metaverse hotspots to gain market attention, and the controlling shareholder's proposed reduction of holdings. The specific reasons and rationality of the matter, etc., whether there is a situation where the stock price is deliberately hyped up in order to cooperate with the reduction of its holdings.
At that time, Zhongqingbao responded that there was no situation in which Li Ruijie led the above-mentioned proposed acquisition and manipulated the company's information disclosure to cooperate with his reduction; the relevant expressions involving the Metaverse were normal behaviors, not behaviors that rubbed off on hot spots to gain market attention.
Since the beginning of this year, the official website of the State Press and Publication Administration has announced the distribution of two batches of game version numbers, and Zhongqingbao's "Master Brewmaster" has not appeared in the list.
According to the current laws and regulations such as the "Regulations on the Administration of Online Publishing Services", games that have not obtained a version number are not allowed to be launched normally in principle.
expert
Chaos will derail the development of the Metaverse and affect the competitive advantage of my country's digital economy
Yu Jianing, executive director of the Metaverse Industry Committee of China Mobile Communications Federation, once said in an interview with the media that starting from 2021, the Metaverse has become an innovation direction that the society is highly concerned about. There will be bubbles and chaos due to overly optimistic expectations and overheated investments.
These chaos will derail the development of the Metaverse, which will seriously delay the development and construction of the Metaverse, and even affect my country's dominant position in the new round of global digital economic competition.
The development of the metaverse is still in its early stages, and many people do not understand it.
Some speculators, in the name of the Metaverse, actually commit crimes such as illegal fraud, which will deepen the public's misunderstanding of the Metaverse, disrupt the industry order, and hinder the development of the Metaverse.
In an interview with a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily, Hu Jiye, director and professor of the Blockchain Financial Rule of Law Research Center at China University of Political Science and Law, said that the Metaverse is a simulation of real society, and it cannot exist without reality.
Previously, the Metaverse virtual real estate hype, which was particularly popular in foreign countries, especially in South Korea, has now plummeted by 90%. One of the important reasons is that the virtual real estate hype is completely divorced from the real economy and has become a concept and expected hype.
Therefore, the development of the Metaverse must have application scenarios combined with the real economy.
At present, distance education is an important scenario that the Metaverse can develop.
Since the new crown epidemic, many schools have chosen the mode of distance education, but the simple online education mode is difficult to attract students, especially primary and secondary school students.
If through the immersive interaction of the metaverse, the teaching effect can be greatly improved.
Another important application scenario is telemedicine, which is very helpful to solve the uneven distribution of medical resources in different cities. Authoritative experts can guide local doctors to perform difficult operations on the spot.
There are also many short videos that are shot based on real scenes. With the blessing of the metaverse mode, the host and the audience can interact in the virtual metaverse, which will greatly change the way people socialize and entertain.
The other is the military field. All new technologies will be the first to be applied to the military. Military exercises in the Metaverse will save more resources. Moving the past military sand table games to the Metaverse will have a significant impact on the future battlefield.
These applications of the metaverse are based on effective integration with the real economy and society.
Regarding the current chaos in the Metaverse, Professor Hu Jiye believes that when any new thing appears, someone will definitely use it to engage in fraudulent activities.
Therefore, society needs to improve the governance system of the Metaverse. It cannot let itself flow, and must establish a regulatory mechanism for the Metaverse.
In recent years, a large number of P2P explosions and ICOs in the currency circle in the name of "Internet finance" have sounded the alarm for the development of the digital economy and digital finance. Industrial development must be synchronized with supervision, otherwise it will bring huge credit to the public and the government. loss.
Metaverse supervision technology must also keep pace with the times and be constantly updated, and the supervision sandbox technology needs to be continuously optimized with the development of Metaverse technology.
Professor Hu Jiye revealed that he is currently writing a chapter on "Metaverse Governance" for "Metaverse Leaders Reader", and will make some new explorations in the governance and supervision of the Metaverse.
This group of articles / reporter Zhu Kaiyun co-ordinator / Yu Meiying