A few years ago, the metaverse was heralded as the next big thing in the evolution of the internet. Today, while not generating the same headlines as AI, it remains one of the most exciting and innovative opportunities for online businesses. Here we explore how the metaverse is evolving and discuss the implications it has for web hosting and virtual spaces.
A changing metaverse
When we first began to hear of the metaverse, it was touted as a virtual 3D world that we would visit using virtual reality headsets. This would see major platforms like Meta, Roblox, Decentraland and The Sandbox develop virtual worlds in which businesses rent virtual space to create virtual stores and experiences. This is a very popular model for young people, especially gamers, who enjoy this kind of experience. Indeed, of the 600m active users who visit this version of the metaverse, 80% are aged 16 or under .
Today, however, the concept of the metaverse has evolved to include a wider range of virtual and augmented spaces that appeal to a broader demographic. According to Wired, rather than the model mentioned above, the future of the metaverse is more likely to be “a network of virtual spaces to which brands, creators, organisations, and industry bodies contribute .” Rather than having huge platforms rent out virtual space, businesses will have their own virtual spaces that seamlessly link with their websites and social media pages. And while 3D headsets would be one way to access them, they can also be accessed via devices, like augmented reality glasses, smartphones, smart TVs and other innovative types of hardware.
In this sense, the metaverse we are likely to see in the future is less game-like and more accessible. In banking, for instance, customers could visit virtual banks and interact with life-like AI avatars or virtual assistants. This could be far more appealing to older customers who don’t like using online or mobile banking. One example already in use in the US is the VR broadcasting of basketball matches. Here, people at home are virtually transported to the basketball court with their avatars able to move and interact with other fans.
The potential of this evolved kind of metaverse is enormous. Users are not stuck in a world where everything has a similar design and feel, like a typical game world, instead each virtual space can have its own unique environment. A good example of this is from Nissan. Using VR, users can inspect the interior of its Ariya cars and even take one for test drives on a series of different routes. If they don’t have a VR headset, they can still inspect the virtual car using a mobile app.
Overall, the metaverse of the future is one where businesses will build their own virtual experiences and stores as web apps, much like they build their own websites today. Instead of users having to access these by visiting a vast virtual world, they can simply be taken there via links or QR codes.
The benefits of developing metaverse stores and experiences
The examples given above highlight just some of the many ways that virtual experiences can engage users and provide services in ways that a typical website can’t. The Nissan example, for instance, shows how VR can overcome the limitations of product photography. Instead of just seeing what the car looks like in a photo, users can actually experience its interior in 3D and take a simulated test drive. While this is no doubt a fun and novel experience for users, for the business, it is likely to generate an increase in the number of people wanting to take a real Nissan Ariya out for a spin and lead to higher sales. This kind of experience can also be used for selling properties and holidays or for promoting wedding venues and restaurants. AR, meanwhile, is already used for selling clothes, glasses, hairstyles and furniture, enabling people to see what they look like wearing things or what products would actually look like in their homes.
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The huge advances in AI over the last couple of years will also be of great benefit in the metaverse. AI tools will be able to help developers create better VR and AR experiences; advanced virtual assistants and chatbots will help users within the metaverse to achieve their goals, such as getting advice about products and services; and AI will be able to analyse user data to help create even more effective experiences for customers. Who knows, in the none-too-distant future, AI tools might be able to create metaverses themselves without the need for expensive developer input, making them accessible to all businesses.
For more information, read:The Pros and Cons of AI in Web Hosting
The impact on hosting
Businesses wanting to create virtual reality or augmented reality stores and experiences will need considerably larger hosting requirements than those needed for a website. To begin with, they will need a platform to design, develop and test their projects. This will need the storage for any development applications (e.g. for 3D modelling) and the project files and data, of which there could be multiple versions.
Once the final version is ready to launch, it will need to be hosted. Whereas a typical web page may only require a few megabytes of data to be transmitted, a virtual environment might be several gigabytes in size. Additionally, it may also need to send real-time data as users interact with it.
This has significant implications for hosting. Businesses will need far greater storage, processing and bandwidth capabilities and these may fluctuate considerably depending on the number of users and how long they are engaged. Companies that use these virtual spaces to host events may see huge rises in numbers during the events and may need extensive resources to ensure their platforms can cope with traffic. Just to give an illustration, Travis Scott’s virtual concert in 2020 was attended by nearly 50 million users.
The ideal environment to build and host virtual stores or virtual experiences is in the cloud. Firstly, many of the applications and tools needed to develop and operate these services are cloud-native, so deploying them in the cloud ensures that they will work straight out of the box and can be deployed quickly. From a hosting perspective, the cloud is the only environment that can provide the on-demand scalability needed to deal with the significant traffic peaks that could occur during large-scale virtual events, ensuring that businesses always have the processing power and bandwidth required to maintain services during busy periods. This scalability, combined with pay-as-you-go pricing, also ensures that companies have the most cost-effective solution, which given the huge amounts of data that is required to host these environments, could provide substantial savings compared to hosting on dedicated servers. Additionally, as the cloud is able to offer 100% uptime, problems like server failure won’t result in harmful disruption.
For more information, read: Why Cloud is the Ideal Solution for Web App Development
Conclusion
The concept of the metaverse is changing from one of large platforms renting out virtual space to businesses to one in which businesses build their own virtual stores and experiences. This gives companies greater scope to develop and host their own unique environments. Putting this in place, however, requires investment in both development and infrastructure. With regards to the latter, the cloud offers the best solution in terms of storage, processing and bandwidth capacity, cost-effectiveness and reliability.
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