Since Facebook rebranded to Meta, the discussion around the metaverse seems
to be endless. In fact, more and more global corporations are adopting
similar platforms such as McDonald's, Samsung to YouTube.
Metaverse is a virtual world that allows people to interact and perform
activities like in the real world. Through Metaverse, users can attend
virtual concerts, order food at restaurants, play games and buy houses
online.
McDonald's has registered a number of trademarks for its virtual restaurant
service that allows for online and in-person food delivery.
Not quite one, the fast food chain even registered 10 applications with the
United States (US) Patent and Trademark Office on February 4 which includes
McDonald's and McCafe.
One of the trademarks proposed is in the form of virtual food and beverage
products, including NFT. The rest, patent filings for the operation of an
online virtual restaurant featuring home delivery of food.
Later trademarks for entertainment services and events under McDonald's and
McCafe, including actual and virtual concerts online. This trademark will
protect the idea of a McDonald's restaurant in the metaverse that can sell
both virtual and real-world food.
Not to be outdone, roto store chain in America, Panera Bread also filed a
trademark for Paneraverse on February 3 last which includes NFT, virtual
entertainment services, and virtual gifts programs.
Meanwhile Nike has founded Metaverse Studio and has patented plans for
virtual assets ranging from avatars to cryptokicks. Meanwhile Gucci,
Microsoft, and Crocs are looking for employees to work on their metaverse
offerings.
Samsung already launched the Galaxy S22 phone through Metaverse last week.
The launch can be watched on the virtual reality platform, Decentraland,
which is still part of the Metaverse.
Samsung has a virtual building in Decentraland which is located at 837X. The
building, which was launched last February 2020, is also a playground for
crypto activists, as it can connect members' crypto wallets and buy plots of
land as NFTs.
The mentaverse effect also extends to the property sector. MetaMetric
Solutions noted that property sales across the four four major metaverse
platforms will reach US$ 501 million in 2021. It is estimated that property
sales could virtually reach US$ 1 billion this year.
A report from BrandEssence Market Research predicts the metaverse property
market will grow at an annual rate of 31% per year from 2022 to 2028.
So far, property sales are concentrated in four big companies such as
Sandbox, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium. Sandbox dominates the
market, with 62% of land available across four platforms and three-quarters
of all land sales by 2022.
YouTube is also planning to develop blockchain and metaverse this year.
Through the technology, the company hopes to suppress fraud in the digital
art market as well as offer a viewing experience for game content.
Over the past year, the world's largest streaming service has strived to
provide users with better guidance on upcoming features amid increasing
competition from TikTok ByteDance Inc and Instagram Meta Platforms Inc.
Last month, YouTube said it was exploring developing Web3 technologies such
as NFT for video clips, art, or other digital assets related to blockchain
as a record-keeping technology.
YouTube has also prioritized the metaverse, an element of the Web3 section
that describes a shared virtual world where people typically interact via
avatars. However they don't have a solid idea yet but it will allow users to
watch videos together in the metaverse.
For now, their focus is on working on videos that bring more interaction to
the game and make it feel more alive.
ByteDance last month launched a mobile app for gathering on the metaverse,
and Meta is spending billions of dollars on virtual and augmented reality
technology.