The fundamental purpose of the origin and development of online social networking is to solve communication problems, not to satisfy people's social desires. The reason lies in the fact that people have demonstrated ample talent in social methods, leading to diversified offline social forms without generating new social demands. However, with the rapid rise of the internet, while providing convenient life services, it has also fostered people's dependence on the network. Internet 2.0 offers a powerful space for communication and interaction, amplifying people's emotional needs. Beyond pursuing quick communication, social demands related to emotions have become a new battleground for capital competition. Since the metaverse aims to simulate the real world, the operational laws and rules of modern society form the foundational logic and major structure of its ecosystem. As a crucial sector reflected in various behaviors such as economy and entertainment, the social sector will inevitably attract widespread attention.
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The Metaverse is Beloved by Capital
In January this year, the 3D avatar and scene chat software IMVU secured $35 million in funding led by NetEase. In March, "the first metaverse stock," Roblox, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with its stock price rising from $45 to $70 on the first day, currently boasting a market cap of nearly $45 billion. In April, U.S. game developer Epic Games announced the completion of a new $1 billion funding round, valuing the company at $28.7 billion.
Why is the metaverse so beloved by capital? The reason is that the market generally considers it one of the main future entry points for internet traffic.
Although the development stage of the metaverse is still in its infancy, with technological maturity and consensus on rules requiring considerable time to materialize, and it will inevitably face technical challenges and developmental bottlenecks, the path to building infrastructure, establishing interactions, and ultimately achieving the healthy operation of the entire ecosystem is long and arduous. However, its trendy and forward-looking concept has garnered significant attention both inside and outside the crypto market. Dubbed "the final form of the internet," the metaverse presents a perfect and novel development opportunity for internet giants whose rapid user growth periods have long passed, now facing developmental bottlenecks.
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Social Internet Giants Dive into the Metaverse
Several years ago, companies and institutions began laying out their metaverse strategies. The initial "success" of NFTs and blockchain gaming sectors further solidified these giants' resolve to join the metaverse wave. Platform companies have plunged into the metaverse: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg publicly stated that "the future of Facebook lies in the metaverse," launching a VR social platform and announcing plans to transform the company into a metaverse company within five years. Tencent and other companies have applied for metaverse-related trademarks, while VR acquisitions and fundraising are in full swing.
As mentioned above, social internet giants diving into the metaverse indicates, on one hand, that metaverse social has vast developmental potential, with capital highly optimistic about the sector's prospects and firmly believing that the future gathering place for users and traffic will be the metaverse. On the other hand, it also signifies that the experience of traditional internet in building and maintaining social networks will be better applied in the metaverse. All of this is aimed at realizing people's beautiful imagination of a perfect virtual world. Beyond tools and technologies like VR, how to enhance user immersion in areas such as rule-setting and scene construction might be key considerations for metaverse social network attempts.
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Social Demand and Technological Evolution
When a certain thing reaches a certain stage of development, social interaction inevitably becomes its top priority because almost any event involves human relationships, and where there are people, social interaction is involved. Similarly, according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, people's needs always progress from lower to higher levels. After fulfilling basic communication needs, people's social demands gradually increase. To meet these evolving demands, technology continuously evolves as well. Needs and technology complement each other, advancing together with the wheel of history. Therefore, as the metaverse develops to a certain stage, social interaction will inevitably become a significant topic.
In fact, Cryptopunks avatars are widely regarded as social software avatars, with their unique characteristics symbolizing the holder's identity, marking the initial emergence of social attributes in the metaverse. In the inaugural article "Analyzing the Relationship Between Metaverse, NFTs, and GameFi" by OKX Beginner Academy, exploring the relationships among the metaverse, blockchain gaming, and NFTs, we find that many overlapping connections already exist—these three cannot be distinctly separated. For instance, blockchain gaming reflects the metaverse ecosystem, game items can be traded as NFTs, and the same goes for social interaction. Engaging in blockchain gaming or NFT transactions inherently involves social behaviors to some extent. Concepts like social NFTs and social tokens have also emerged. Moreover, in social networks, beyond human presence, elements like audiovisual media and game exhibits are indispensable parts. The social sector will undoubtedly intertwine with other sectors in its future development.
Conclusion
Economy leads, followed by entertainment, while social development lags, and applications are slow to materialize. This is not only due to current technological limitations but also the more complex issue of managing the relationships among developers, social platforms, and users, as well as perfectly addressing privacy concerns in real-world internet social interactions. Currently, applications in various metaverse sectors are severely fragmented, lacking good connections and interactions, making it difficult to create a complete virtual world and, consequently, to attempt social interactions. Numerous unresolved issues remain, yet they are essential considerations in the metaverse's development, undoubtedly placing higher demands on current metaverse participants.