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01建立元宇宙
各品牌搶進元宇宙，品牌之爭正式拉開序幕
2021下半年，元宇宙一詞搶佔報紙頭條、各大螢幕及各大公司董事會，現在品牌與企業也開始加速規劃，為即將到來的數位之爭。
科技巨頭開始聚焦元宇宙的發展。臉書（Facebook）在2021年10月更名為Meta，同時公布了品牌重要發展方針；馬克?祖克柏（Mark Zuckerberg）先前也已大張旗鼓地宣告，將轉型為元宇宙企業，形塑該品牌的未來發展。微軟總裁薩蒂亞．納德拉（Satya Nadella）在8月時表示，微軟正在打造「企業元宇宙」。
2021年間，遊戲公司亦開始正視為平台上打造元宇宙的必要性。Epic Games在4月時獲得10億美元的融資，該筆資金將用來支持「元宇宙的長期願景」。寶可夢遊戲的開發者Niantic在11月募集了3億美元，意圖打造「真實世界的元宇宙」。輝達（Nvidia）計畫要創立「工程師的元宇宙」，旗下Omniverse平台於8月公開；據其表示，該平台在12月會推出beta測試版，結合「工程師、設計師甚至自動化機台，一起打造數位孿生工廠與工業元宇宙。」
就連和元宇宙誕生無直接相關的產業（例如法律、財富管理業），於2021年都開始期待元宇宙帶來的成長。2021年3月，Metaverse Group宣布會發表全球首款虛擬資產專用的房地產投資信託Metaverse REIT。法律事務所Reed Smith認為元宇宙是「史上最大的工業革命」，因此於2021年5月發布了元宇宙法務指南，議題涵蓋智慧財產權、隱私、競爭等，囊括各層面的法律議題。同年6月，投資公司Roundhill Investments 和資深投資顧問Mattew Ball共同發表名為Roundhill Ball Metaverse的基金，裡面精選了輝達、騰訊、Roblox 等公司的股票。
值得關注的原因：
元宇宙的創立、定義和所有權，都已變得炙手可熱。數位藝術家 Krista Kim（同時也是全球首間 NFT 企業 Mars House 的創辦人）對偉門智威智庫表示：「以前60年代有太空競賽，現在 2021 年變成元宇宙競賽。大家都在爭相創立新的元宇宙。」
01 Building the metaverse
The race is on as brands rush to stake their claim on the metaverse.
The metaverse dominated headlines, screens and boardrooms in the second half of 2021. Now brands and companies are rushing to prepare for this next iteration of digital engagement.
Big Tech brands are setting their sights on the metaverse.Facebook unveiled a massive brand pivot when it changed its company name to Meta in October 2021, after Mark Zuckerberg announced that the Meta’s future lies in becoming a metaverse company. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in August that year that Microsoft is working on building the“enterprise metaverse.”
Gaming companies began seriously carving out space for the metaverse on their platforms in 2021. In April, Epic Games closed a $1 billion round of funding to support its “long-term vision for the metaverse.” Niantic, the game developer behind Pok?mon Go,raised $300 million in November to build what it describes as the “real-world metaverse.” Nvidia jumpstarted its “metaverse for engineers” with the opening of Omniverse in August. Now, other companies are shelling out to buy up game developers. Most recently, FarmVille creator Zynga was purchased for $12.7 billion in January 2022, and Tencent purchased UK game developer Sumo Group for $1.7 billion in July 2021.
Even brands in industries that are not directly related to the creation of the metaverse, such as law and wealth management, started anticipating its growing value in 2021. In March, the Metaverse Group announced plans to launch Metaverse REIT, a first-of-its-kind real estate investment trust for virtual assets. Law firm Reed Smith released a legal guide to the metaverse in May, covering legal issues ranging from intellectual property to privacy to competition in what the firm calls “the biggest-ever industrial revolution the world has ever seen.” And in June, Roundhill Investments and Matthew Ball launched the Roundhill Ball Metaverse investment fund, which has holdings in companies including Nvidia, Tencent and Roblox.
Why it’s interesting
Competition to create, define and own the metaverse has taken off. “There was a space race in the 1960s, and now there’s a metaverse race in 2021,” Krista Kim, digital artist and creator of the first NFT digital home, Mars House, tells Wunderman Thompson Intelligence. “People are really scurrying to build the new metaverse.”
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