It is the word of the year, the concept of the decade, and it may also be the flop of the century. The metaverse has begun to walk among us, but it is something that comes from afar.
Text: David Arráez.
Photos: OVR.
Much has happened since, in 1992, Neal Stephenson recreated in his novel Snow Crash a fictional virtual world based on the real world. It was the birth of the concept of the metaverse.
Shortly after, in 2003, a virtual reality world in which we could move with some freedom and interact with spaces, people and objects, opened before us with a very descriptive name: Second Life. This ‘second life’ introduced us to a digital system in which we “lived” through an avatar, also digital.
But the metaverse, or rather, the metaverses, are very different in 2022. And much closer. As close as, right now, while you are reading these lines, there are people buying virtual plots of places in Palma such as the Cathedral, the Almudaina Palace or the Parc de la Mar.
The Bellver castle is already completely sold –virtually speaking–, as well as a large part of Puerto Portals, areas of Punta Ballena or Magaluf beach. And all thanks to a business model that is as unpredictable as it is profitable for its creators.
For a few euros, anyone can own a virtual plot of land in one of the dozens of metaverses on the internet.
Metaverses such as Over, one of the largest in the world, allow these virtual land to be acquired for modest prices. According to the company itself, there are currently more than 28,000 investors in its metaverse, who have spent more than seven million dollars on more than 830,000 virtual parcels.
And where is the business? Where always: try to increase the value of the plot you have bought and sell it in the future for a higher price. But there is more.
The metaverse, in which we are all going to end up involved, is a billionaire business. We will see thousands of virtual stores selling virtual products; brands placing virtual advertisements in virtual media and virtual urban speculation carried out with virtual plots and buildings.
Everything will be virtual…
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