Virtual reality: the “metaverse” of Facebook, crazy bet or marketing stunt? – The gallery

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“Métavers”, the tech word of the year 2021? Fallen into disuse over the past 15 years, this term from the science fiction literature of the 1990s has come back in favor in recent months under the pen of several Silicon Valley gurus.

At the center of this new craze is Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. In June, the famous leader granted a rare interview at The Verge site, to present to the public the outlines of a metaverse made in Facebook. Over the course of the interview, the American billionaire describes a ” Internet incarnate ”, Where the user would be projected into the content. To get the concise definition, one has to turn to a published article by the company at the end of September: ” The “metaverse” is a set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who are not present in the same physical space as you. “. Or the apology for a virtual parallel world, in which physical barriers do not exist, and where you can have a coffee in a larger-than-life environment with a person on the other side of the world.

Oculus, giant of a very small sector

If Zuckerberg himself acts as a spokesperson for the metaverse, this is because it intends to place the concept at the heart of the company’s development strategy. In the vision of the manager, virtual reality (VR) is intended to establish itself as the ” technology that delivers the clearest form of presence “. In other words, virtual reality is necessary to achieve the immersive feeling necessary to create the metaverse.

Are Mark Zuckerberg’s announcements this summer really major, or is this a new marketing package to revive his activity around virtual reality? The truth certainly lies between the two. Because Facebook believes enormously, and for a long time, in virtual reality. In 2014, the social media giant spent $ 2 billion to afford the pioneering company in the sector, Oculus. Today integrated into the “Reality Labs” division, the brand is the leader in the headset market, according to Counterpoint, ahead of Sony, HTC or DPVR. Its latest helmet model even crushes the competition with 75% market share since the start of 2021.

But, despite Facebook’s hopes, Oculus was not enough to spark the enthusiasm of the general public, nor that of companies. In 2017, for example, Facebook announced the extremely ambitious goal of converting “ 1 billion people to virtual reality “. To achieve this, he hoped the detonation would come from the “Oculus Quest,” a new headset that got rid of cumbersome wires and the need to plug into a computer. In short, a VR headset, smaller and more practical, which is sufficient on its own. Small revolution in the sector, the Quest made it possible to triple the number of sales of VR software, but it was not however enough to explode the market, the fault, among others, with a lack of applications.

Likewise, its successor, the Quest 2, released at the end of 2020, may crush the group’s sales records, it has only passed between 5 and 8 million copies, according to different estimates. Far from Zuckerberg’s pharaonic lens. In other words, even if the virtual reality sector is growing rapidly and in double digits, this technology remains a niche phenomenon and should rather be put, to this day, in the camp of disappointments for Facebook.

No concrete horizon for Horizon

In the VR market, Facebook does not stop at the role of manufacturer. In 2019, the group showed the first images of “Facebook Horizon”, an alternative world in virtual reality. Still in its infancy, the project actually lays the foundation for the metaverse, although the term was not used at the time.

Concretely, the tech giant wanted, in the long term, to offer development kits intended for users, as video games like Second life, Roblox, Where Minecraft. The idea? Transform Horizon into a “sandbox” universe (in English) by allowing its inhabitants to create – and then possibly sell – just about anything and everything, within the limits of the rules of the virtual world. Facebook would thus create a new economy of products and services within Horizon. A revolution ? Not really, because this type of customizable universe in virtual reality already exists, like VRChat, launched in 2014, without the financial and commercial power of Facebook it is true.

Except that once again, this Horizon with thousands of possibilities seems very distant. In April, Facebook finally spoke again about the project – after a silence of a year and a half – and presented a first demonstration, called ” Horizon Workrooms “. A sort of Zoom in virtual reality, Workrooms allows its users to meet remotely in a virtual office room, VR headsets screwed on the head. Participants without this expensive equipment (350 euros for the Quest 2) can join the meeting as in a conventional videoconference system. But they will remain in 2 dimensions, with their images projected on a wall in the virtual room.

The company, which itself tested the tool internally for 6 months, highlights the feeling of immersion: “Ohear people as if they are in a real room, which makes conversations more fluids. A very meager accomplishment compared to the fantasies of VR.

Firepower for the metaverse

So, to support its new strategy for developing virtual reality, Facebook is releasing the portfolio, and this is the real novelty of the “metaverse”. The giant intends to invest no less than $ 3 billion over ten years to develop the new generation of virtual reality headsets. He also pledged to spend $ 50 million to think about ethical questions on the metaverse, and it predicts 10,000 recruitments in the European Union.

To set up, the metaverse needs lighter helmets – Zuckerberg’s own admission – and above all, a large number of applications. Users must want to spend time there, especially in the context of the company. But virtual reality has so far disappointed the professional world, as confirmed by The gallery Nosing Doeuk, associate director of the consulting firm mc2i:

” I greatly reduced the firm’s investments in VR in 2019. There were not enough interesting applications for large accounts. Too few companies had the skills to model trainings effectively, and we hoped that there would be greater adoption of the technology among customers “, He justifies.

Not only must Facebook refine its own tools, but it must also succeed in bringing with it an entire industry, especially software, if it is to achieve its ambitions. For example, Facebook Horizon furniture will need to be able to travel to other virtual worlds, created by third parties. The tech giant knows that a metaverse limited to “FacebookLand” will not be enough, and could also attract it, one more time, the wrath of regulators.