Meta launches the sale of virtual objects in its metaverse
Meta seeks to attract content creators likely to in turn attract new users.
AP - Tony Avelar
Text by: Dominique Desaunay Follow
3 mins
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has made the Metaverse the guideline of its development.
Marc Zuckerberg's firm now intends to make its investments profitable by announcing the sale of virtual objects directly in these 3D digital spaces.
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A metaverse?
What is that ?
To put it simply, these universes are managed by powerful computers, in order to offer their visitors an experience in a three-dimensional virtual environment.
Digital spaces in which it becomes possible to move through an avatar, that is to say a 3D character simulating a more or less faithful representation of oneself, to attend concerts with friends or take part in a meeting with colleagues in an identical digitally reconstructed office.
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To read also: "Metaverse": behind the virtual worlds, very real issues
These exact copies of the world around us are based on advanced technologies such as those offered by immersive headsets.
And this would clearly be the future for the major Asian or American social networks which will thus adopt the rules of verbal and non-verbal communication in conformity with reality, such as gestures, facial expressions or even the tone of voice of their visitors to the helps immersive headsets.
But whether they are designed for entertainment or for professional activities, these places of alternative reality are already transforming the internet as we know it, specifies Nicolas Vernet, director of
Skyreal
, a French company which develops virtual reality tools. for large companies.
"
Today, Meta is preparing the sequel to Facebook and according to Marc Zuckerberg, the future of its social networks mainly involves the development of a virtual universe.
To carry out its project, the American firm is concentrating on its favorite sector, that is to say that of entertainment allowing people to meet, share photos, play games with others and so on.
But once this leisure metaverse is in place, the company needs regular subscribers to collect data, in order to monetize it with advertisers and earn money.
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Although metaverses have existed for a long time, we are currently witnessing an acceleration in their development with the contribution of colossal financial investments.
"Today, these virtual universes allow several people to talk to each other, but also to collaborate, whether in Meta's 3D environments for entertainment or by using the professional tools of our company Skyreal, as do, by example, the Ariane Espace engineers who carry out the design work for the Ariane 6 launcher, in virtual reality and directly in a virtual world.
», Details Nicolas Vernet.
Creators on the Horizon online platform will be able to produce and sell fashion accessories or offer paid access to another part of this themed 3D universe.
Visitors to Horizon will be spoiled for choice since 10,000 “worlds” with different environments have already been generated, explains the Californian group.
Meta
has already gathered around its project more than 300,000 users in the United States and Canada alone.
If the firm does not intend to sell these virtual objects itself, it nevertheless hopes to derive substantial advertising revenue from them.
The American company depends exclusively on the targeted advertising it currently broadcasts on all of its social platforms.
Soon it will also obviously be through its metaverses.
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To read also: The European metaverse, a more responsible virtual universe
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