Everything You Need To Know, What Is The Metaverse? Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Ambition

JAKARTA - In addition to announcing the company name change last October, Facebook CEO, now known as Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, also revealed the latest innovations and research related to augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

Zuckerberg also reveals more of his vision of the metaverse. Basically metaverse is a new concept combining AR and VR technology in an online platform.

Metaverse is an immersive internet experience that leverages social media, AR and VR and similar technologies to create an online presence that is as engaging as the real thing.

The company adds that the result will be a world of endless and interconnected virtual communities, where people can meet each other, work together, play games and more.

But to enter the world of the metaverse, they must use technology such as virtual reality headsets and AR glasses like Meta's, Oculus.

In addition, Zuckerberg also explained that by bringing the metaverse is intended to be the next evolution of social connections, virtual spaces and where people can socialize with each other, learn together, and interact in new ways.

Zuckerberg sees the metaverse as the successor to the mobile internet, an invention that changed all lives by allowing people to be online from anywhere, and enabling the Facebook business today to exist.

If the metaverse becomes everything Zuckerberg wants it to be, it could also shake the world, transforming human existence from rooted in the physical world to one where digital presence increasingly complements the real world.

Two months after the renaming, Meta made a beta version of its multiplayer virtual reality game Horizon World, downloadable to all adults in the United States (US) and Canada for free.

Horizon Worlds is an avatar virtual reality world that was previously launched in beta last year. But only Oculus VR users, by invitation can join the virtual world. But now, everyone without an invitation can try it.

Quoted from CNBC International, the wider launch of Horizon Worlds is an important step for Meta for its metaverse work. Within Horizon World, the company adopted a new moniker, based on the metaverse of the sci-fi term, which describes its vision for work and play in virtual worlds.

However, as explained by Horizon World, you must use Meta's Oculus virtual reality headset, where users can create legless avatars to roam the animated virtual world. There, they can play games and interact with other users' avatars.

Compiled from VOX, many people are still trying to understand what the metaverse really is and whether the concept of futuristic technology is something they should take seriously. Many critics and skeptics scorned Zuckerberg's plans to turn Facebook from a social media company into a metaverse company.

Some critics say that by focusing on the metaverse and naming itself, the company is trying to distract from problems created recently, such as harming youth's mental health, facilitating the spread of disinformation, and fueling political polarization.

Even some of Facebook's own employees are concerned about the metaverse. Facebook executives Andrew Bosworth and Nick Clegg responded to this.

“Meta will not build, own, or run its own metaverse. We started the conversation about our vision for the metaverse early, even before some technologies existed. We're discussing it now to help ensure that any terms of use, privacy controls or safety features are compliant with new technology and effective in keeping people safe," they said in a blog post.

Furthermore, Meta also stated that he did not want to be the only one who developed the metaverse. “This will not be the job of just one company. This will require collaboration across industries and with experts, governments and regulators to get it right," Meta said on his official blog.

The company bet a lot on this concept and of course expects great success. The plan is that Meta will put some of the world's brightest engineering minds to work on the project, and acquire AR and VR companies.

In fact, they will employ more than 10,000 people, and support the initiative with tens of billions of dollars. Zuckerberg, who ultimately has unilateral control over his company, seems genuinely excited about it.

Metaverse on Meta is nothing new, before Meta many other companies have jumped in first, but without the melee.

Like Roblox, Nvidia, and Microsoft, which have built virtual worlds with virtual technology or AE. Unfortunately, they are not as developed as in the metaverse versions that Meta has built so far, the digital avatars it offers in lieu of our physical bodies are cartoonish, clumsy, and legless.

Not only these three companies, game maker Epic Games also brings a metaverse to its Fortnite. Epic's metaverse strategy has two prongs, firstly expanding Fortnite with 60 million monthly active users to an experience that could reach a billion in the future.

To top it off, the company wants to leverage its content creation tools like Unreal Engine for 3D graphics, enabling all companies across the industry to have a real-time 3D presence.

"Over the next few decades, the metaverse has the potential to become a trillion-dollar part of the world economy. The next three years will be a critical time for all metaverse-aspiring companies like Epic, Roblox, Microsoft, Facebook," explained Epic Games CEO, Tim Sweeney was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

"It's kind of a race to get to one billion users, whoever generates one billion users first, will be considered the leader in setting the standard."

Closer to the metaverse, Epic Games recently introduced Fortnite Party Worlds, or maps intended solely as a social space to meet friends and play mini-games. After all, Meta has to worry about its metaverse ambitions seeing the development of tech companies increasingly unparalleled.