Metaverse 101: How I Look at the Metaverse, the Ecosystem
The Metaverse isn't just one Industry, it's an Ecosystem.
TL;DR: The Metaverse is a fancy way to organize and integrate several industries into a “digital frontier”. When investing in a company, ask “whose back can they grow on”.
Hi there,
I’ve scoured the internet to understand and give better explanations on topics I only just recently learned about. I even went to the second page of Google results to get there.
This time, we’re going to look at the Metaverse, but even deeper. I will admit that my current impression of the Metaverse name is that it is a fancier way to organize the various aspects of the video game industry in a way that appeals to an investor. Call it lipstick on a pig, now in VR.
As always, you can find TL;DRs and graphics as I explain this mirepoix (that’s carrots, celery, and onion for you non-cooks) of concepts.
In Case You Missed It
Metaverse 100 - Evolving and Engaging the Internet
NFT 100 - It’s a Start
Cryptomining 100 - What is it all about?
Sections You Can Skim To
How do you “look” at it?
How Do You Look at It: Level I - Super Basic Look
How Do You Look at It: Level II - Basic Look
How Do You Look at It: Level III - Advanced Look
How Do You Look at It: Level IV - Too Deep of a Look
TL;DR: The Metaverse is an ecosystem of different industries.
Building on last weeks piece where I introduced Matthew Balls Framework for the Metaverse 7 Focus areas, I am back to talk about how you can make sense of the different parts of the Metaverse. Even though the number of searches on the Metaverse, it’s still worth talking about it.
When I look at the Metaverse from a business standpoint, I look at it as something a tad wider than an Industry. I look at it as an Ecosystem. An ecosystem involves networks of companies operating in a way that both competes with, and cooperates with, one another.
How Do You Look at It: Level 1
TL;DR: How 7 things collided into 1.
Metaverse is the collection and cooperation of different seemingly non related industries reorganized to take on the “digital frontier”. Virtual reality would be the tip of the iceberg.
It’s nothing special. Someone just figured out how to put lipstick on a pig and try to make money off it (at the time of this writing, the guy who did it has loss $30b in net worth).
How Do You Look at It: Level 2
TL;DR: 7 Domains or Focus Areas, as stated from the Jon Radoff Essays
When looking at the Metaverse Ecosystem, there are 7 domain areas not including the user themselves. These 7 domain areas are served by all sorts of companies and individuals, and you can expect to see companies having offerings that touch parts across each domain, or all of one domain.
The advances made toward the center - the hardware focus areas which comprise of both infrastructure and human interface - will most likely ripple upwards toward experiences. The demand for better experiences will influence how the hardware-based focus areas will evolve. After all, what’s the point of the Metaverse if it costs too much to interact with it directly.
Some Notes:
Discovery are things like stores, advertising, and ways for consumers to find new experiences. Think of how you use Spotify to discover new artists, Youtube to figure out which clickbait thumbnail to avoid, and Apple iOS App Curation to figure out which language app you will download and proceed to never use.
Spatial Computing is how do you make 3D Interaction at a technological software level. Companies invest in software engines, which is essentially the foundational building block software that allows artists to focus on creating, and less on coding. A great kid friendly example is to look at legos. You don’t need to understand legos to build something. Ideally, the same would be said for Spatial Computing software. You don’t need to understand the code to create a 3d space.
Fun fact, Pixar, the makers of Toy Story and Turning Red, uses their own movie animation software called Presto & Renderman to animate their films.
How Do You Look at It: Level 3
TL;DR: 7 Domains or Focus Areas, but with a variety of companies, as stated from the Jon Radoff Essays
Now that we’ve established what 7 layers, lets look at where companies compete today. In this mapping of some of the companies, you can see how traditional companies that you and I know can be be organized across the Metaverse domain areas.
See anything you like?
When looking at the Metaverse, you have to recognize that there isn’t going to be a winner takes all. The Metaverse is a collection of seperate industries that happen to benefit from the activity of another industry, whether through cooperation or competition.
As I look at this chart, and I look at the different domain areas, the big question I would be asking of every single company is this:
“How does this company grow on the back of another?”
The Metaverse entails a level of integration across each domain area. When one domain area is eliminated, effectively the rest of the domain areas can’t operate. Well except Infrastructure. Infrastructure can exist outside of it all.
How Do You Look at It: Level 4
TL;DR: You’ve gone too far deep that it’s confusing given the specificity and niche view of it.
Now we’re going to go even deeper.
In this example we’ve gone much deeper in defining the subdomains and aligning companies across the different aspects.
Don’t get too hung up on it. It’s just here to show “how deep” we can go.
Closing Comments
I hope this edition provides a quick ecosystem play of the Metaverse. If you thought the Metaverse was an iceberg, wait until you see the Video Game Ecosystem. Just kidding, you can see it right here. More on that later.
Connect and DM with me on LinkedIn if you got requests, curiousities, confusions, or want to say hi.