The metaverse is dead, long live the metaverse!

Nothing smells as good as dramatic headlines at the crack of dawn.

A few weeks ago, some of them told us that Meta had given up on the development of the metaverse.

Normally, under such clickbait attempts (Mark Zuckerberg is quietly burying the metaverse, the metaverse is dead), there is basically information that the company has determined the development of AI technology as its priority.

Wow, metaverse, will AI replace you?

Well, not quite. Both the metaverse and AI have been in the game for a long time. And in this particular case, the AI focus should be seen as the company's effort to improve its business faster.

Because based on everything we know about this technology, it's clear that it can affect the user experience, but also profitability, which Meta definitely needs given the losses and the announced layoffs.

Of course, AI will have a positive impact on the metaverse itself, which from its beginnings (it was being worked on long before Facebook became Meta) represented an idea that could not be realized overnight.

So, where are we going now?

Since it entered the mainstream, we most often associate the term metaverse with dystopian visions of the future in which we spend our lives in virtual reality. However, the essence is far from that.

Today, when Facebook is a common thing, we would sound strange if we tried to explain it as a unique environment where you connect with friends, meet people, share content from your life, communicate with companies and brands and if you really want to, sell your products and services.

Instead, it is enough to say social network and the matter is clear.

Of course, it would have been different if we had had that conversation 20 years ago.

There's also the catch with the metaverse. Just as the web1 user spontaneously adopted web2 concepts, we are increasingly reaching web3 where at some point the metaverse will represent the context in which we are online.

Integrated virtual reality is probably the ultimate outcome, and until then, we'll see many iterations of it. It is not abandoned, and Meta shouldn’t be exclusively identified with the concept. Sometime in January of this year, McKinsey published a text estimating that the market value of metaverse-related activities could reach $4 to $5 trillion by 2030.

The metaverse is dead? I wouldn't say.

Meta is certainly not the only one in this race, nor is it leading. More and more companies are working on their metaverse presence. A few months ago, L'Oréal named its web3 and metaverse director, along with Disney, Procter & Gamble, LVMH and many others.

Technology develops, users adopt it, and new opportunities bring new needs. Metaverse is not just a buzzword and current hype, but a response to their timely recognition. Like it or not, we are all headed in that direction and the question is not whether we will get there, but whether we will be ready when we get there.