A few days ago, Luo Yonghao, who lives at the "end of the universe" Tieling , announced in a high-profile manner that he will return to the technology industry next spring and will return on the day after paying off his debts.
And Teacher Luo’s first stop to return to the technology industry is the meta universe. Previously, he stated on Weibo that "our next startup project is a so-called meta-universe company."
As we all know, after chasing blogs, mobile phones, social software, e-cigarettes and other trends one by one, and falling into debt, Teacher Luo won the title of "Industry Light" and "Wind Killer" in the industry. This time, the operation of preparing to enter the " Yuan Universe " has naturally attracted widespread attention from the outside world.
According to Zhitong Finance APP, the "meta universe" that Teacher Luo is preparing to enter this time is a hot topic that is highly sought after by capital.
In March 2021, interactive game development company Roblox was listed on New York Stock Exchange with a market value of more than US$30 billion. The stock price rose by 54% on the same day, and it was known as the "first stock in the metaverse". Subsequently, many well-known companies at home and abroad, such as Facebook, Tencent , ByteDance, announced their entry and expansion of the business map about the Metaverse.
At the same time, many concept stocks have risen sharply because they have taken advantage of the hot spot of "meta universe": On November 3, A-share listed company Yi Shang, thanked three daily limits because it announced that it would increase its investment in themeta universe business; from September 7th to the present, the share price of Zhongqingbao , the leader of the meta universe, has increased from 8.2 yuan to nearly 33 yuan, up about 3 times.
And some meta-universe concept stocks in the Hong Kong stock market have also risen all the way because of the "me-universe": From October 29th to the present, the stock price of Baineng Group (01263) has risen by more than 40%; and the stock price of Digital Kingdom (00547) has risen by more than 20%...
So far, the meta-universe has completely exploded, and 2021 has also become the "first year of the meta-universe" in a short period of time.
However, given Teacher Luo's "Hearing Lamp Attribute", the current outside world generally adheres to the sustainability of the concept of the metaverse.
Therefore, let’s further analyze through the current situation of the industry: What the hell is the metaverse?
From science fiction movies to reality, what is the metaverse?
The concept of “metauniverse” was first born in the 1992 science fiction novel "Avalanche".
In the novel, writer Stevenson depicts a virtual world parallel to the real world - "Metaverse". Here, each user can have his own virtual stand-alone Avatar, doing whatever he wants to do in the real world according to his own ideas.
Then, the concept of the metaverse was also rapidly finalized in science fiction movies. In 1999, " Matrix " portrayed a virtual world like a "brain in the tank". The virtual world oasis depicted in 2018's " player number " is generally considered to be the ultimate form representative of the metaverse.
However, after breaking away from the imagination of science fiction movies, what exactly is the metaverse?
A popular explanation is that the "metauniverse" is a collection of virtual time spaces, composed of a series of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and the Internet (Internet). Generally speaking, the "metauniverse" is a virtual world parallel to the real world and highly interconnected, including AR/VR, cloud computing , AI, 5G, blockchain and other technologies.
According to relevant research reports, the metaverse needs to have six major characteristics, namely persistence, real-time, compatibility, economic attributes, connectivity, and creativity. These six characteristics are indispensable, and only those that meet these six characteristics can be called the meta universe. The industrial chain is divided into seven levels: experience layer, discovery layer, creator economy layer, decentralization layer, human-computer interaction layer, and infrastructure layer.
So based on the six major characteristics above, are "Minecraft" and "Roblox", which are currently regarded as meta-universe products, the current meta-universe products?
" Minecraft " is an open-world game developed by Microsoft companies. In the game, players can freely roam in a virtual world and freely choose the time and method of completing game tasks. Does it seem to be very consistent with the concept of meta-universe, but since this game does not have the economic attributes that are linked to reality, it cannot be counted as the "metauniverse" in the true sense.
"Roblox" is a sandbox game developed by Roblox, the "first stock in the metaverse". Compared with "Minecraft", Roblox has connectivity. At the same time, the virtual currency Robux owned and earned by users can also be exchanged for real money (economic attributes) in real life. Therefore, "Roblox" can be said to have the primary form of the metaverse. But since it has not achieved a complete projection of the real world, and the overall environment is still relatively rough, the immersive experience is relatively low.
Therefore, to be honest, from science fiction movies to reality, the so-called metaverse products are still a thousand miles away from the ideal metaverse in the movie.
Under the capital carnival, I woke up not only "touched"
Although the technical barriers need to be broken through, the metaverse has indeed begun to move from being imaginary to becoming reality.
At the same time, based on the characteristics of the permanent online of the metaverse, the 3D space of the fusion of virtual and real, the interconnection between people and people or people and things, and the virtual currency system, with the continuous development of VR, AR, artificial intelligence and other technologies, the outside world can still try to build the prototype of the metaverse. Among them, social networking and gaming are undoubtedly the two major tracks that best suit the above characteristics.
In view of this, social and gaming companies are taking the lead.
Foreign, on April 13, the American game developer EpicGames, which created the global popular game " Fortnite ", announced that it had completed announcing a $1 billion financing, and the amount of financing was used to help the company build its meta-universe business.
html In mid-July, Facebook bluntly stated that the company will transform into a meta-universe company within the next five years. Then at the end of October, Facebook announced that the company was officially renamed "Meta", trying to get closer to the metaverse in terms of brand image. CEO Zuckerberg even proposed at the meeting that the company's future focus is to focus on realizing the metaverse.In China, related companies are not willing to lag behind.
As of October this year, Tencent has directly or indirectly invested in 67 game companies, including a US$520 million investment in Roblox in January this year, and games are considered one of the entrances to the metaverse. At the same time, Tencent founder Ma Huateng also proposed the concept of "full real Internet" at the end of 2020. The content of "from reality to virtual" in the concept can be said to be similar to the concept of "meta-universe".
In addition to BAT, in April this year, ByteDance invested in the "Metaverse" game developer code Qiankun, with an investment amount of nearly 100 million yuan. Soon after, Code Qiankun launched the meta-universe game "Restart World". On August 29, ByteDance reported another news that it had spent a huge amount of money to acquire VR company Pico. According to media reports, after ByteDance acquires Pico, the two parties will form a strong alliance in VR-related businesses.
According to the data of Tianyancha , as of November 8, nearly 700 companies have registered trademarks related to the Metaverse.
But it should be pointed out that it is not difficult to find that, since the current metaverse is still in the exploration stage, and even companies that have been deployed early have not come up with some substantial products and technologies, the current popularity of this industry is more about concept hype.
On November 4, Tianxiaxiu , which had "5 daily limit hits on the 6th", received a regulatory letter from the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Since then, it responded to the concept of metaverse that the company's "Rainbow Universe" social product is currently in the testing stage and the official launch time is uncertain. Technical support comes from company-level R&D reserves, realizing 3D-based scene social networking, and has not yet been connected to VR, AR and other technologies. The product has not generated revenue yet and will not have an impact on the company's performance at present.
can be seen that with the consequences of supervision, after experiencing this capital carnival, the metaverse woke up not only "touched", but also left many "complaints" of concept hype.
How do you view the development opportunities of the metaverse?
Although the current metaverse is still in the exploration stage and is a thousand miles away from the "metauniverse" in science fiction movies, it is undeniable that the "metauniverse" is undoubtedly a major forward-looking direction in the future.
CITIC Securities bluntly stated in its research report: "The metaverse is the next generation of Internet in the next 20 years and is the digital survival of mankind in the future."
In its view, games and socialization may be the starting point of investment in the metaverse. In terms of application level, the first breakthrough may come from the exploration of giants such as Tencent, ByteDance ( Douyin ), Facebook, and Baidu in the fields of games, socialization, etc. On the technical side, the most investment-worthy areas are still in key areas where leading companies have strong technical and market advantages, such as Nvidia in the GPU field, graphics engine company Epic, etc. In addition, companies in the metacosmic infrastructure such as cloud computing, IDC, 5G, etc. have also benefited from the digitalization process for a long time.
. Compared with the targets of the Hong Kong stock market, it is not difficult to find that there are not many Hong Kong stocks at present. Most concept stocks are composed of stock at the application level and technical level. Among them, the application level mainly includes game stocks such as Tencent Holdings (00700), Xindong Company (02400), Zhongshe Games (00302), and on the technical level, they are stocks such as Boneng Group (01263), Sunny Optical Technology (02382).
For example, at the application level, in recent years, Tencent (00700) has continued to invest in companies and products related to the concept of metaverse. Among them, Roblox and Epic, which are recognized as the "preface of metaverse products", have been included in it. In addition, the four technical capabilities required by the Metaverse (platform entrance, e-commerce, blockchain, and social media) have also been invested in. This also means that with the support of rich financial and material resources, Tencent is very likely to become the leader of the domestic "metauniverse", which will also prompt it to take the lead in savoring the dividends of the development of the metaverse.
Technical level, Baineng Group, which has recorded a lot of gains recently, is also worth mentioning. Founded in 1997, Boneng Group is a well-known computer image display card manufacturer, with its main customers being Nvidia and AMD with leading advantages. At the same time, its own brand ZOTAC is one of the most popular products in the Amazon graphics card rankings.
In the first half of 2021, the company's RTX3000 series graphics cards were in short supply. Due to the imbalance of supply and demand, the average selling price of this product rose by about 103.5% from the first half of 2020 to the first half of 2021. Thanks to strong demand, the revenue of Boren Group increased significantly to HK$6.85 billion in the period, and the net profit attributable to shareholders soared by 2800% year-on-year to HK$933 million. It can be seen that as Nvidia continues to advance in the metaverse, its future performance is expected to further increase as it has established a good cooperative relationship with Nvidia.
In addition, the authentic "VR concept stock" digital kingdom (00547) in the Hong Kong stock market seems to benefit significantly from the development benefits of the metaverse. It is reported that the company was formerly known as Aoliang Group Co., Ltd., which was established in 1992. Since acquiring DigitalDomain (formerly Digital Kingdom) in 2013, it has transformed into a diversified investment holding company integrating cultural and entertainment industry, digital visual effects, joint film production business, and property investment. Currently, the business mainly covers three major businesses: special effects, virtual people and VR.
Don't underestimate DigitalDomain, the company was founded in 1993 by the famous James Cameron . Since its establishment, it has produced digital visual effects for more than 100 films. Its representative works include the award-winning "Titanic" and "Rejuvenation", as well as the popular "Player No. 1" and "Avengers" series. From this we can see that the digital kingdom, which is wearing the dual halo of VR virtual reality + Hollywood special effects, is naturally expected to be the first to win the development opportunities of the metaverse.
However, it should be noted that a coin has two sides. While the Metaverse has created development opportunities, it has also brought many challenges.
First, constrained by technological progress, the prototype products in the early stages of the meta-universe are often controversial, and the commercialization effect is highly uncertain; second, based on the establishment of digital assets and economic systems such as blockchain and NFT, it is still related to the price of digital currency , and may face the risks of currency fluctuations and supervision from various countries; third, technologies such as AI, graphics engines, high-speed wireless charging and even batteries may affect the development process of the meta-universe; in addition, the consumption of electricity and energy in the meta-universe and the digital world also brings challenges to the future energy structure.
Opportunities and risks coexist. This may be the attitude we should treat the metaverse correctly. At the same time, we need to be vigilant about the current hype behavior of funds. After all, all the rising logic without "real materials" will eventually be defeated by the market.
