METADAYS 2022, DEBRIEF
The first edition of METADAYS, an event dedicated to B2B metavers in France, took place at the end of November in Paris. During two days, 750 participants were able to attend a multitude of quality conferences and meet more than thirty companies specialized in metavers, Web3 and NFTs.
The content and speakers diversity made it possible to address many topics around the growing metaverse industry and more generally Web3, beyond the buzz and media shortcuts.
However, everyone agreed that the metaverse was only in its infancy. Its technological and economic maturity is expected within the next ten years, according to the vast majority of stakeholders. This is reminiscent of the history of the Internet and e-commerce in the early 2000s.
The metavers market was approached from several angles during these two days with HR, real estate, tourism, regulation, inclusion, blockchain, NFTs, cryptocurrencies, etc.
Metavers at the service of employees
These universes can be used to immerse employees in the corporate culture, introduce them to the different businesses or conduct team meetings or recruitment.
With over 80% of the GenZ playing video games, companies will have to adapt to the code of this generation. These metaverse tools will then make sense to recruit and retain the employees of tomorrow
The reality of metaverse real estate
In meta platforms using blockchain, such as Decentraland, The Sandbox or the OtherSide, it is possible to buy land to build experiences. The purchase of these virtual lands is done through the purchase of an NFT (Non Fungible Token). The purchase price of the land will depend on the virtual neighborhood in which it is located, just like what happens in real estate. In The Sandbox, the land near the virtual property of American rapper Snoop Dogg will have the highest prices as this area generates a lot of visitor traffic.
Today there are 23,000 landowners and more than 400 brands in The Sandbox, which can be compared to a real average city. According to Sébastien Borget, COO and co-founder of The Sandbox, the deployment of an experience on one of the terrains of this immersive world will cost an average of €10,000 to €50,000.
Florian Freyssenand founder of Tokenland, explained very clearly the principles of the market of renting virtual land in metaverse with a logic of yield. The metaverse seems to take the codes of real life real estate.
In another vein, for Sarah Renard CEO of Kahia, the metavers will help preserve geographical sites endangered by climate change by creating digital twins. Digital twins to model the effects of climate change on these sites and find the best solutions to safeguard them. In the worst case to simply keep in memory the missing sites.
Social relations in the metaverse
In the metavers users will be able to fully express their personality. For Aurore Géraud from l’Atelier BNP Paribas, the avatars will make it possible to test styles and personalities much more simply than in real life. The metaverse then becomes a tool for diversity and inclusion.
However, the metavers did not eliminate the idiots and other harassers. Unfortunately, the first cases of harassment have already taken place. For Maitre Julie Jacob, lawyer at the Barreau de Paris, in the metavers it is the law of the user’s country that must be applied and not that of the company managing the virtual world. Metavers platforms will have to rapidly deploy a real moderation strategy to fight cyberharassment and cybertoxicity. Web2 errors should not be reproduced in the metaverse and Web3.
On the other hand, what about the right to digital oblivion and death in the metaverse once we have passed away in real life as expressed by Teddy Pahagbia CEO of Blvck Pixel. What will happen to our avatars and digital twins?
Brands and Web3
The metadays are also brands like Decathlon or Breitling that share their experiments around the Web3. Very pragmatic uses of blockchain and NFTs to ensure traceability and authenticity of products while offering new perspectives for the customer relationship of tomorrow. We also have a podcast on the subject with Valentin Auvinet, Chief Metaverse Officer of Decathlon.
It is important to understand that the Web3 and the metavers are not just technological tools, they become geopolitical tools, as Fabien Aufrechter VP Web 3.0 at Vivendi very well recalled. China has the largest patent portfolio in the world on blockchain technology. For Vincent Lorphelin, founder of Controv3rse, we will witness a patent war, no longer between companies but between states.
This first edition of the Metadays allowed the French metavers ecosystem to meet and exchange in order to better understand the challenges to be overcome for this emerging industry. It is very likely that the second edition will be of a completely different magnitude in view of this first success.
