The Direction and Implications of the Content Industry in the Metaverse Era

As the demand for non-face-to-face services has increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conversion of offline services into online services has accelerated. Along with these changes in service provision and consumption behavior, people’s desire to have online experience that are similar to offline experiences online has also increased. The metaverse is currently attracting attention as a new technology that can satisfy this. The metaverse is a portmanteau of meta, which means transcendence and virtuality, and universe and refers to a virtual world that transcends reality. The metaverse has been mentioned as a next-generation service to succeed the Internet, and global companies such as Meta, Apple, and Microsoft are launching related technologies and services. In addition, as 5G services and metaverse-related technologies have been improved, an environment has been established to experience services similar to reality in virtual space. Currently, the metaverse is spreading mainly in content industries such as games, performances, Fortnite, and ZEPETO. Concerts and fan meetings, which were once only possible offline, are also being held on metaverse platforms. Users can create and sell content themselves, and in the metaverse individuals are able to actually engage in economic activities in combination with blockchain technology. This paper describes the salient features of metaverse technologies, the current status of the metaverse at home and abroad, and the direction of the next-generation content industry in the era of the metaverse.