How far away is the age of Metaverse?

Postponement
At the beginning of 2022, the number of users on Facebook will have fallen for the first time in its history. From a platform unable to cope with the challenge of TikTok for the time being, but not necessarily to its detriment, more and more users are flowing to music/video platforms. This trend also includes a rise in the number of Instagram users, the volume of its content and its weight in the advertising market. There is a strong migration from Facebook to Instagram among 25-44 year olds. TikTok is on an upward trajectory in 2021, both in terms of users and brand usage, and its domestic base of almost 2.5 million users makes it an indispensable marketing tool in the Hungarian market.

In short and in long
Shorts" type videos have exploded in recent times, just think of the success of Instagram Reels, Tiktok and YouTube Shorts. In 2020, the live stream market grew by 99 percent, and this trend continued in 2021: on Twitch, users now watch 71 million hours of video per day, and on Facebook, the engagement rate for live videos is the highest at around one hour.

It remains to be seen how much it will resonate...
... for voice platforms and solutions. The emergence of the Clubhouse, Facebook Live Audio Room, Twitter Audio Spaces and various voice chats, the continuing popularity of the podcast format, the rise of voice-based SEO and the not too distant arrival of voice control all point to the fact that social media will be worth 'listening' to.

Metaverse
The future of social media? But what distant future? A vision dreamed up by many but made familiar to most people in 2021 by Facebook's revolutionary plans could fundamentally change the way we live and connect with each other. But for now it's hard to say whether this is an overhyped prediction or our future, and in five years' time we will be targeting those interested in the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which will be a metaverse at least once a week, at a price of ETH 0.00021 per unit.

For the moment it is difficult to say whether the metaverse is an overhyped prophecy or whether it is our future.

Let's start from the basics: today we are knocking on the door of the web 3.0 era. It's a new, decentralised form of the internet that promises to put power in the hands of individual users and builds on technologies such as AI and decentralised protocols. Data is therefore not transmitted through a central server (involving a third party) but through blockchains via peer-to-peer communication. Security is an important element of the system, making data very difficult to alter/modify as it is used in a way that can be run and controlled by multiple parties.

Once you begin to understand the logic of the new environment, you will have no difficulty with NFT. NFT is short for non-fungible token, which means non-replaceable token. NFT exists only in digital form, but is completely unique. It can be anything that can be stored in digital form, such as a privacy contract, music, painting or video. The point is that it can be exclusively owned, resold, and there is only one of it.

You can also pay for NFTs with cryptocurrencies, of which there are currently hundreds of different currencies, the most well-known being bitcoin, ethereum, tether and polkadot. To give you an idea of the scale, you can currently exchange 1 bitcoin for 13.6 million forints... So it's no surprise why so many people see this as a great business opportunity, why we hear of teenagers becoming millionaires and brands seeking partnerships with the most famous digital asset issuers.

The NBA, for example, sold collectible 'moments' as the 3.0 version of its collectible playing cards: it auctioned off video footage of legendary games, generating $230 million (!) in a short period of time.
Coca-Cola released a series of four NFTs, unique animated digital creations that customers could use to unlock a surprise. For example, the Coca-Cola Bubble Jacket Wearable can be worn on the Decentraland virtual reality platform, and the Coca-Cola Friendship Box was inspired by original artwork from the 1940s - the company also included a fully stocked Coca-Cola fridge. The promotion raised nearly $575,000 and in December 2021, a digital snow globe collection was released in NFT form, featuring the iconic polar bears.

McDonald's released a limited number of McNFTs as part of a virtual collectible art collection featuring McRib, in conjunction with the return of McRib. The collection of ten unique McRib-NFTs was only available to those who re-tweeted the brand's invitation, which was retweeted by more than 21,000 people within a few hours and nearly 93,000 by early 2022. It was also announced that McMetaverse restaurants will be opening, so you'll be able to order food from the metaverse to the real world.