The rise of the new concept of "meta universe" is brewing a new round of reform.
With foreign companies such as Facebook and Microsoft betting on metauniverse, Chinese giants such as Netease, Huawei and byte beat have also announced their entry one after another. Metauniverse has become the next Internet outlet, attracting more and more players to join. Consumer enterprises that seem to be "out of touch" with metauniverse have also begun to rub their hands.
Recently, Guangyao Wang Laoji officially signed a contract with highstreet world and announced that he would buy land on the yuanuniverse of highstreet world and start the construction of Kyrgyzstan cultural base. Lin Xianfeng, director of Wang Laoji pharmaceutical's food division, said, "by using blockchain technology, digital products can swim on the blockchain. The unique digital asset with unique identification and ownership information owned by users has great room for appreciation." In his opinion, the meta universe built by blockchain, big data and other interactive technologies has played an important role in Wang Laoji's contact with the new generation.
Coincidentally, Haidilao, Coca Cola, miyue ice city, L'Oreal, nature hall and other beauty brands have also made great efforts in yuanuniverse.
When consumption meets the meta universe, is it a concept or a new outlet?
Cosmic tide
"The meta universe is a new concept. At present, we try to touch and embrace it according to our understanding." On February 28 this year, Weng Shaoquan, general manager of Guangzhou wanglaojida Health Industry Co., Ltd., told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter at the innovation and Development Conference for the 10th anniversary of the establishment of wanglaojida health company.
On the same day, Wang Laoji held the launching ceremony of the "auspicious space" of the meta universe, and planned to bring new consumption scene experience to consumers with the application of relevant technologies of the meta universe. Before that, a microblog with the theme of "Wang Laoji's application for yuanuniverse trademark" had been posted on hot search, causing hot discussion among netizens.
Weng Shaoquan said, "digitization is the development direction of national strategy in the future. Wang Laoji's application for yuanuniverse trademark and the release of 'auspicious space' are mainly the layout of future business development." He pointed out that the layout of metauniverse is to promote sales on the one hand and the need of future business development on the other hand.
The reporter checked the data of qixinbao and found that as of March 30, 2022, the total number of trademark applications with "yuanuniverse" in the name has been nearly 20000. Topics related to the meta universe have quickly become the focus of public attention. According to Baidu Index, the overall average daily search times of the keyword "meta universe" in the past six months were 26393, an increase of 676% month on month.
What is the "meta universe" that is popular all over the world Kong Rong, global technology chief of Tianfeng Securities Co.Ltd(601162) Research Institute, once defined metauniverse as "3D Internet". She said, "if metauniverse is a building, then network computing and artificial intelligence are the core underlying technologies."
It is understood that metaverse was born in the science fiction avalanche in 1992. The author depicts a three-dimensional digital space parallel to the real world. AI media consulting pointed out that the current definition of meta universe refers to a virtual universe form constructed through a variety of technologies, that is, people can use brain computer interface, VR and other science and technology to immerse themselves into the data world.
According to the Research Report on the development of the meta universe from 2020 to 2021 released by Tsinghua University, 2020 is the critical point of the virtualization of human society, paving the way for 2021 to become the first year of the meta universe. On the one hand, the epidemic has accelerated social virtualization. Under the covid-19 pneumonia epidemic prevention and control measures, the length of Internet access in the whole society has increased significantly, and the "housing economy" has developed rapidly; On the other hand, online life has changed from the original short-term exception state to the normal state, from the supplement of the real world to a world parallel to the real world. Human real life has begun to migrate to the virtual world on a large scale, and human beings have become "amphibious species" of reality and digital.
As people have a higher interactive demand for the virtual world, the meta universe has ushered in a huge space for development. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the market size of the meta universe will reach US $1.5 trillion in 2030, while Bloomberg industry estimates that the market size of the meta universe will reach US $2.5 trillion at that time; Morgan Stanley predicts that the potential market space of metauniverse will exceed $8 trillion in the future. Not only that, in the development process of meta universe, it will continue to stimulate and expand the market scale in other fields.
Fast moving consumer goods piled up and broke in
In fact, Wang Laoji, who tried to enter the meta universe, is only an epitome of many FMCG brands. As the yuan universe has become a hot outlet at present, consumer brands are constantly cutting corners Tianfeng Securities Co.Ltd(601162) points out that the concept of meta universe has long collided with consumption since the fire last year, or new consumption in meta universe has long become a trend.
On March 30, Haidilao pre sold the blind box of "eat with xiaohi - eggplant star doll series" in the member mall and tmall's official flagship store, and gave 1920 digital art collections in limited quantity in tmall's official flagship store. The pre-sale began at 10 a.m. and the limited number of blind boxes with digital collections sold out instantly. "I opened the pre-sale page early and stared at it. I didn't expect to be killed by the second hand. Fortunately, there are still physical blind boxes." A consumer who didn't grab the attached digital collection style was a little unwilling.
Influenced by the concept of "meta universe", digital collections are setting off an upsurge all over the world. It is understood that digital collections are in essence specific digitized works, works of art and commodities uniquely identified by blockchain technology, including but not limited to digital paintings, pictures, music, videos, 3D models and other forms. Each digital collection is mapped with a unique serial number on a specific blockchain, which cannot be tampered with, separated or replaced by each other.
However, unlike foreign countries, most of China's digital collections are distributed based on alliance chain, focusing on the concept of digital collections. For example, the small hi blind box digital collection launched by Haidilao this time uses ant blockchain technology. In the case that everything can be "digital collection", the boundary of digital collection is constantly expanding.
In April 2021, Coca Cola and TAFI, a digital wearable device design platform, jointly launched the NFT digital collection, the work of Coca Cola friendship box. In December, Naixue's tea official microblog posted the tag of "milk tea industry entering the meta universe", and sold the virtual idol NFT blind box online, announcing its official entry into the meta universe.
Coincidentally, honey Snow Ice City, which focuses on the sinking market, also registered a series of meta universe trademarks last year. According to Tianyan survey, the registered trademarks of honey snow ice city include "Honey snow meta universe", "Snow King meta universe", "mixuemeta", "snowkingmeta", etc. In February this year, McDonald's, the world's largest fast-food chain, also submitted a trademark application based on metauniverse. The new trademarks applied include "operating a virtual restaurant characterized by real and virtual goods" and "online virtual restaurant providing door-to-door service".
In addition, L'Oreal, nature hall and other beauty brands have also made efforts one after another. Nature hall launched the collection of "nature hall Thangka ice muscle water + NFT ice muscle water" on November 11, 2021, taking the lead in eating the first "crab" in the field of meta universe concept. In February this year, L'Oreal of France applied for the trademark of virtual goods for its 17 brands. In the application document, L'Oreal said it would "provide people with a virtual world to browse, accumulate, buy, sell and trade virtual cosmetics".
"There is a saying in L'Oreal that 'grasp the small trend and play the first chess', that is, seize these trends when they first appear." In an interview with 21st Century Business Herald, Fabry, President of L'Oreal North Asia and CEO of China, believed that digital tools or means such as metauniverse can bring products and services closer to consumers and provide consumers with more personalized experience and products.
Chen Xinhan, director of L'Oreal's digital innovation in China, told reporters that L'Oreal began to use augmented reality (AR) to interact with consumers a few years ago. At the same time, it brought naked eye 3D technology to the live broadcasting room to provide consumers with an immersive shopping experience Tianfeng Securities Co.Ltd(601162) points out that 3D content can improve the consumption experience in terms of spatial sense, and the combination of virtual and reality can help consumers make satisfactory online shopping choices, so as to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
The reporter noted that last December, L'Oreal released seven NFT cooperative works focusing on female artists. It is understood that at present, L'Oreal has a special team in France to research and develop content related to the meta universe. Fabry said, "for the meta universe, we hope to play our first chess well."
true layout or hot spot
From VR technology to virtual IP and virtual spokesperson, and then to the evolving NFT, it is not difficult to see that the enthusiasm of consumer brands for yuanuniverse is expanding rapidly, but at the same time, the voice of doubt in the industry follows.
Some insiders believe that the essence of consumer brands entering the meta universe is "old wine in new bottles". Many consumer brands register yuancosmos trademarks to improve brand awareness for manufacturing hotspots, so as to increase product sales. At the same time, most consumer brand companies lack it, intelligent hardware team and black technology patents. In essence, they still use NFT, virtual IP and virtual idol for marketing.
Zhu danpeng, an analyst of China's food industry, told the 21st Century Business Herald that catering enterprises entering the meta universe "actually rub hot spots and have no meaning". He pointed out that this is a means of "playing with concepts and gimmicks. Whoever puts forward them first may be able to enjoy this traffic first, that is, hype and powder absorption" to win traffic.
The reporter found that many brands under the banner of "meta universe" have no substantive action in the layout of meta universe. Perfect diary told the 21st Century Business Herald that the application for registration of Chinese and English trademarks such as "perfect diary yuanuniverse" and "Pico bear yuanuniverse" is "there is no yuanuniverse plan for the purpose of protecting trademarks". Honey snow ice city also told the media that the trademark of the yuan universe is only a protective registration. In order to avoid possible counterfeiting in the future, there is no clear plan and action in the field of the yuan universe for the time being.
Under the microblog entry of Naixue's "milk tea industry into the meta universe", some consumers also questioned, "Naixue's NFT can't be given away, traded or circulated, so what's the significance of collection?" In fact, the transaction attribute of China's NFT has been weakened, and China's supervision of virtual currency is very strict. At present, the application scope of NFT is still limited to digital collections and digital artworks. After the release of IP tide play, up to now, Naixue's tea has not announced the next metauniverse plan.
Tianfeng Securities Co.Ltd(601162) points out that at present, metauniverse + Web3 The heat and traffic brought by the 0 concept drive more brands and IP to settle in. Brand / IP / platform locates special consumer groups through virtual people and NFT to create virtual products and physical products. However, traffic is only the superficial value of virtual human and NFT, and its core is the community attribute behind it. It has created new consumer demand for brands and platforms, and has also become the path of deep digitization.
The problem of new consumption development under the meta universe can not be ignored Tianfeng Securities Co.Ltd(601162) further points out that at present, the development of the core technology of the meta universe is less than expected, which restricts the development of new consumption of the meta universe mainly due to the immaturity and cost of technology. According to the Research Report on the development of metauniverse from 2020 to 2021, metauniverse needs 5g, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, blockchain, digital twin, expanded reality (AR / VR / MR), Siasun Robot&Automation Co.Ltd(300024) and brain computer interface as the technology base, which is still far away.
Zhu danpeng said that if the brand simply hypes the concept of meta universe, it will only be a flash in the pan and it is impossible to have long-term customer stickiness. "If there is no substantive content or new elements in the follow-up, the Cenozoic is just a temporary pleasure for the meta universe," he said
