The metaverse has been attracting a lot of attention recently. What was the reason for the sudden arrival of the alternative metaverse craze? It can be seen that the impact of COVID-19 is huge. Generation MZ, familiar with the digital environment, has begun to pay attention to the metaverse as a way to interact with others even in the situation of social distance due to COVID-19. The metaverse has emerged as a hot trend in the COVID-19 era as the developed media technology is combined with the demand for a way to interact without direct contact with another person. Previously, simple avatars were used in the metaverse, but now they are taking place in various forms in the field of cultural life, such as the developed game “Zepeto” and the aspect of K-pop idols using it. Also, the fact that IT companies such as Meta (formerly Facebook) and Apple are moving with a lot of interest toward the metaverse suggests that the metaverse can lead the future.
Metaverse is a compound word of the words “Meta” and “Universe”, meaning a three-dimensional virtual world. The word “Metaverse” was created by novelist Neil Stevenson in 1992 in the science fiction novel Snow Crash. The metaverse enables social, cultural, and economic activities through the interaction between the virtual world and reality. If the real and virtual areas continue to interact, the difference between reality and the virtual world will be reduced compared to the present. Virtual worlds such as Cyworld's Mini-me and augmented reality services such as Pokemon-Go can also be classified as metaverses. In addition, games such as Zepeto, and Animal Crossing can be defined as metaverse from a functional point of view. The metaverse is divided into four types: augmented reality, mirror world, virtual world, and lifelogging. Augmented reality shows virtual objects overlaid on the real world, and the mirror world is a virtual world in which the real world is equally reflected in the virtual world. The virtual world is a digital world of an environment similar to the real world, and lifelogging is to record and describe information and experiences about people and things in a virtual space like Facebook.
On October 28, 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would change its name to Meta. Mark Zuckerberg explained that he changed the name of the company to establish and clarify the identity of the company. He said that he would keep the existing social network service Facebook but would create a company that envisions and plans the metaverse world. In order to build the metaverse, Meta not only attracts manpower, but also will introduce the world's fastest AI supercomputer in June of this year. CEO Zuckerberg said that the metaverse requires a lot of computational skills, so the supercomputer will build new AI models that learn and understand many languages. Apple, which is competing with Facebook for the leadership of the metaverse, is also actively competing to attract talent. The augmented reality headset, which Apple expects to release in 2023, is drawing attention to changing the landscape of the metaverse market. In 2021, Apple applied for a patent technology related to low-end HMD head mounted devices that secure devices to users’ heads. Apple's HMD technology includes content that allows real-life movements to be reflected in virtual reality. Sensors mounted on HMD let users express their opinions in virtual reality by detecting gestures in the real world. Through these technologies, it is predicted that the gap between the real world and virtual reality can be greatly reduced and immersion can be greatly increased.
SM Entertainment's girl group “Aespa” has a total of eight members, consisting of four existing people and four virtual idols. Aespa announced the start of the SM metaverse with a groundbreaking concept that combines metaverse technology with the existing entertainment industry. SM presents the concept of “CAWMAN” and attempts to reinterpret the metaverse. “CAWMAN” is a combination of C for Cartoon, A for Animation, W for Web- toon, M for Motion Graphic, A for Avatar, and N for Nobel. In this attempt, SM's ambition to differentiate itself from other idols through storytelling of the worldview and provide various contents beyond stage performances using music and dance can be seen. As a result of the effective operation of SM's strategy described above, Aespa's new song has become a hot topic every time it is released and is ranked at the top of the music chart. Then people's expectations are growing as to whether the new metaverse idol following Aespa will make a debut.
Zepeto is a metaverse platform for consumers, with more than 200 million users worldwide. The contents of the application are simple. If you create an avatar after signing up for the app, you can communicate with other users' avatars. Users can freely decorate their avatars or sell items they have produced. Recently, BLACKPINK and TWICE tried to communicate with fans by holding events using Zepeto. More than 46 million users reportedly visited BLACKPINK's virtual fan signing event held in Zepeto. TWICE produced and released a teaser video of a new song with Zepeto's 3D avatar. It is such a global application that 90% of Zepeto subscribers are occupied by overseas users such as China and Japan. This means that it is a perfect platform for Korean Wave stars to engage in international activities. On top of that, Zepeto and the entertainment industry are expected to continue to collaborate in the future as most Zepeto users are in the MZ generation and the demand for online communication channels has expanded in non-face-to-face society.
"So far, we have examined the concepts and cases of the metaverse. The metaverse has emerged as an important keyword in the COVID-19 era, but it is difficult to define it. Even now, the metaverse is creating a new culture by changing its appearance every moment. Experts predict that the metaverse will continue to have a close relationship with reality by creating more diverse new industries in the future. In order to become the talent demanded by the market in line with the new era, more attention should be paid to the metaverse. Some cynics point out that virtual reality games that already existed might have only been given the plausible name “Metaverse”. However, even in the non-face-to-face era, the fact that the metaverse is a newly created culture in line with the needs of people who want to be connected to others remains unchanged. We can't go back to the pre-COVID-19 era now. We will have to constantly try to understand the metaverse, which has come to our side as part of a new culture while preparing for the post-COVID-19 era."
76th Reporter • JEONG SEUNG HYE • nora28@naver.com
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