Sin Chew Interview: Metaverse

“Metaverse” has been one of the hottest topics in the Internet industry last six months. Thanks to Sin Chew Daily, the leading Chinese daily in Malaysia, for giving me such an opportunity to share my views about metaverse via this interview by Lim Teck Seng.

The highlights of my sharing are as follows:

1. Metaverse is still at its beginning stage and evolving. No one can confirm what it will look like ultimately.

2. While one of the elements of the metaverse is decentralization, another potential development for metaverse could be a “hybrid’ mode in the future – the combination of decentralization and centralization.

3. Meta/Facebook’s move into Metaverse shows its urge to own the “next platform” – if only the future belongs to the virtual reality world. While Microsoft (Windows) owns the desktop world, and Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) own the mobile world, Meta wants to build Oculus/Horizon Worlds as the “operating system” of the virtual world.

4. Metaverse will not be just owned by one entity/company, and it could be a combination of many virtual worlds. With that, the next “killer app” could be the application/API connecting all these “worlds,” allowing users seamlessly travel or move among all the “worlds” – be it the identity or assets.

What are your thoughts about metaverse?