A lot of people are talking about the “metaverse”, and as a result, a lot of folks are wondering what the heck that word even means.
Frankly, it’s a reasonable question. But as someone who has actually built, launched, and operated a metaverse before, I have answers!
I recently spoke at the Digital Economy Forum, hosted in Korea by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and organized by the Korea Startup Forum. After the panel, we got the question “what’s the difference between Second Life and a metaverse?”
Here’s the short-form answer:
Online worlds lead to multiverses which lead to metaverses. And just about no one has actual metaverses to offer right now.