The Near Future From the Platforms and Users’ Perspective

While the Metaverse will eventually find its ultimate form that we have seen in movies and novels, this is a process which will take time.

In our last post, we discussed the near future of the Metaverse era from the perspective of platforms. (1)The Metaverse Era Will Emerge in Its Infancy as a Group of Metaverse Platforms Rather than a Singular Platform, and (2) These Metaverses Will Be Asymmetrical and the Strategy of Exclusivity (check out our post here)

In this post we hope to discuss what the early stages of the Metaverse era will look like for users.

<Users’ Perspective 1>

The Main Audience of the Metaversal Era Will Extend Their Presence to Multiple Platforms, Digitally Nomadic Rather than Settler.

In the era of the Metaverse, it is inevitable that the characteristics of the platforms will be connected to the characteristics of the user. If we assume that platforms will choose to pursue the strategy of exclusivity and asymmetry, users will move between multiple platforms to take advantage of the various advantages that multiple platforms can provide. Also, there will be many users who display different personas across the various Metaverse platforms.

In actuality, this is not a new tendency of users. Gen Z, who are digital natives, are already used to maintaining a presence on multiple social media platforms and presenting multiple personas. For example, on Instagram, there are many users who create two accounts a Finsta (portmanteau of Fake and Instagram) that’s public alongside a Rinsta (portmanteau of Real and Instagram) which is private and only for close friends. This is an example of users dividing their online personas across multiple accounts on the same platform.

A user taking a selfie with a friend inside Zepeto (Source: Zepetto Official YouTube)

The user base of the current Metaverse platforms at the center of interest such as Roblox, Fortnite, Zepeto, and Minecraft mostly consists of Gen Z. 55% of Amercians under the age are members of Roblox, 40% of American teenagers login to Fortnite at least once a week, and 80% of the 200 million users of Zepeto are teenagers. The Metaverse platforms to follow will have user bases that are mostly Gen Z or following generations.

We predict that these users will not merely choose one platform, but rather move between multiple platforms that culture’s and form fits their personas and provides products, services, and content that fit their wants. We also believe that they will display multiple personas on these multiple platforms.

We also believe that the platforms that can identify the needs of users and their multiple personas will have a competitive edge and an advantage in surviving past the early years of the Metaverse era.

<Users’ Perspective 2>

Digital Natives Require Interwebbing Services, Independent but Interwoven into the Metaverse.

While users can collect information or communicate about a specific platform within said platform with the tools provided by the platform, this becomes a difficult when information or communication has to happen between two or multiple platforms. Thus, we believe that the early stage of the Metaverse Era will also see the growth of services which connect multiple platforms.

Such as how the concept of the internet forum centralized into Reddit which connects multiple interests and communities into one website, or how various VoIP and chatting services became centralized into Discord which allowed gamers to jump from one game to another with their friends with no disconnect in communication, we believe that a similar niche will form in the early stages of the Metaverse Era.

Especially once the Metaverse allows for economic activity similar to the real world, there will be certain business niches that will occur such as a service that allows for taking currency gained in Platform A in order to purchase goods on platform B.

Each Metaverse platforms will have their own socioeconomic and cultural systems. As more and more users maintain a presences on multiple platform there will be use value that is created from complementary systems that extend between multiple platforms. As the complementary values of certain platforms increase, the need for services that act as the connective tissue between platform will also increase. As these connections grow stronger, certain platforms will merge r absorb other platforms. Although the multiple platforms will exist independently, like countries in the real world, these connective services will allow cooperation, trade, and communication between platforms. Eventually, the totality of the Metaverse, as a totality of multiple platforms which have been stitched together similar to a quilt, the ecosystem which represents this totality will emerge.

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With these two posts, we have expressed how we believe the early years of the Metaverse era will take form. We hope that you have learned more about the Metaverse and the future through reading these posts brought to you by TENTUPLAY.

If you wish to read more information and future prospects of the Metaverse, you can read more in the TENTUPLAY Metaverse White Paper!

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