The "metaverse" has become a hot topic for executives, analysts, and investors alike, being mentioned in the earnings calls of more than 15 companies in the past few months alone.
Several executives have begun weaving mentions of the metaverse into discussion with investors as the tech world grapples with what the metaverse will actually look like. They are unsure of what the metaverse is and how it works.
While Facebook's recent rebrand to Meta helped increase awareness of the metaverse, even CEO Mark Zuckerberg only has a vague notion of the definition of the metaverse.
"The best way to understand the metaverse is to experience it yourself, but it's a little tough because it doesn't fully exist yet," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a conference last month.
Some companies are unsure if a metaverse will ever actually exist, while others are unsure if a virtual space is a real space at all.
Morgan Stanley analysts said that the metaverse could represent an $8 trillion opportunity, but it would be difficult to get people interested in using it. Artificial intelligence and augmented reality experts told Insider that a metaverse could amplify society's political polarization.
Even if they don't understand it yet, companies are willing to make large investments in the metaverse. According to The Information, the space will be worth $82 billion by the year 2025.
Some company executives are talking about the metaverse and what they intend to do with it.
Agora Inc. is a company
The real-time video platform just announced a network product that would "accelerate any kind of data, not just video or audio, and for any application, whether it's gaming, e-commerce, collaboration, or metaverse," according to CEO Tony Zhao.
In a November call with investors, Zhao said that they had seen an "increasing trend of real-time engagement in extended reality environment." "Our plan is to further enhance our capabilities in these areas and become an instrumental infrastructure provider for metaverse."
Bilibili.
The CEO of Bilibili said in a call with investors on Wednesday that the metaverse is not a product but a concept.
If someone hears the concept of metaverse and decides to get into this business, it would probably be too late. We think that metaverse is not something that can be done by a single company. You need to have a lot of production capacity.
Whitney Wolfe Herd is the CEO of Bumble.
Bennett Raglin is a photographer for Fast Company.
There is a person named Bumble.
In an earnings call in November, CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said that the company plans to build new engagement and community relationships for users through the communities they build, the virtual goods and experiences they acquire or through new ways of owning their identity as they navigate the metaverse.
"We believe Bumble BFF will enable a level of participation and empowerment that will make our mission come to life," he said. New engagement, participation and creator models will be in the near term.
Brian Armstrong is the CEO of Coinbase.
The photo was taken for TechCrunch.
It's a company called Coinbase.
The company had been spending a lot of time developing the metaverse with other technologies, such as NFTs, which are being used by tens of millions of Americans.
"We want to keep doubling down on those opportunities because we think there's just an abundance of innovation in this space," he said in the call.
The company that makes Dolby Laboratories.
The metaverse has the potential to integrate with its technology, particularly when it comes to hearing features.
Kevin Yeman said in an earnings call on Tuesday that he hopes to integrate the metaverse with their technology. Some of our developers define themselves as virtual environments and possibly the metaverse.
Mark Zuckerberg is at Facebook.
Facebook.
Facebook.
The company was changing its name to focus on the metaverse. The first venture into the metaverse would be a virtual reality workspace, where employees could interact in virtual meetings, according to the founder.
"You can think about the metaverse as an embodied internet, where instead of just viewing content, you are in it."
Match group
Match Group CEO Sharmistha Dubey said in an earnings call in November that she imagined a piano bar where people's digital selves are gathering around, but they're actually playing their pianos at home and jamming with others.
"It is metaverse experiences coming to life in a way that is different to how people meet and get to know each other on a dating or social discovery platform and is much more similar to how people interact in the real world," he said.
Microsoft CEO.
Sean Gallup is a photographer.
Microsoft.
In its earnings call in July, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talked about the company's new service, which he said would help decentralize computing.
"As the digital and physical worlds converge, we are leading in a new layer of the infrastructure stack, the enterprise metaverse," said Nadella.
NetEase.
The Chinese tech entertainment company said it is ready for a move into the metaverse.
The metaverse is a new term that is being used. Margaret Shi, NetEase head of investor relations, said on a November earnings call that nobody has had firsthand experience with what it is.
David Baszucki is the founder and CEO of Roblox.
Ian Tuttle is a photographer.
There is a program called Roblox.
Roblox is an example of a metaverse model. In an earnings call in June, David Baszucki said that the company is driven to "really participating in inventing and shepherding in the metaverse in an innovative way."
Baszucki said that the metaverse and what Roblox is, they think of it as a utility.
The company wants to connect more than one billion people in the metaverse. Chief Business Officer Craig Donato said that the metaverse will house experiences from ad agencies.
The software is called Unity.
The video game software company recently acquired Weta Digital, which it said will help with entry into the metaverse space, especially with a creator-focused approach. The company has begun building thousands of digital assets in an effort to populate the metaverse.
John Riccitiello said on an earnings call in November that it would help to have more creators in the world. "This really puts under our platform something that is, at least from an artist perspective, truly magic and they're the largest tappable audience we have in our universe."
Vonage is a company.
The cloud communications provider said it's focusing on cloud-based technology to increase user engagement in preparation for something bigger.
Vonage's CEO said on an earnings call in November that the company expects to see a better version of the metaverse in the next five to ten years.
"We believe this is only going to accelerate as this kind of engagement in the metaverse expands and explodes," Read said.
The CEO of the Disney Co. is Bob Chapek.
The Orange County Register is part of the MediaNews Group.
The company is owned by The Walt Disney Company.
Disney has a history of adopting technologies like computer animation and synchronized audio, which is why the company's CEO is confident in its ability to take advantage of the metaverse.
"Our efforts to date are merely a beginning to a time when we'll be able to connect the physical and digital worlds even more closely, allowing for stories without boundaries in our own Disney metaverse," he said in a November call.
Warner Music Group is a music group.
In its earnings call in November, Warner Music Group talked about the potential for their music to be distributed on large scale metaverse platforms.
Stephen Cooper said that the number of people that spend meaningful amounts of time in these new worlds provides a universe of opportunity.
