How will content creators try to harness the potential of this new technology? And can there ever be 100% digital influencers? Let’s try to figure it out together
The Metaverse promises to forever revolutionize Internet and the way people interact online. It is, in short, a virtual reality projected on the network and shared by many users at the same time and offers a vast amount of ways to pass the time and have fun. For example, it is possible to assume a new digital identity and live a "second life", a bit as if one ended up inside a giant video game. Facebook describes the metaverse as a kind of "Internet brought to life", or at least rendered three-dimensional. Users, in fact, can interact with what they usually just observe on the screen.
There are still so many unanswered questions about this new digital “universe”, which is after all in its embryonic stages. A category quite interested in the actual scope of this revolution is undoubtedly that of influencers/content creators, who have transformed the online presence into their main source of income. How will their work change with the advent of the metaverse? Will they be able to continue their routine or will they have to find ways to reinvent themselves? Let’s try to answer these questions together.
What will influencers do in the metaverse?
The new user interaction options made possible by the metaverse could be a godsend for influencers. By carrying out their work especially online, the new VIPs do not have many opportunities to meet their fans in person and further consolidate the bond with them.
In the metaverse it may become easier to arrange meetings that simulate what is possible in the real world, giving users more opportunities to learn more about their favorite content creators and have fun with them. It is all too easy to imagine meet & greet in huge virtual squares, game sessions capable of involving many people, digital concerts and much more. After all, Fortnite has already proved that it is possible to have success with such events. Travis Scott made a whopping $20 million performing in the game, and other artists have done the same.
Virtual influencers
The metaverse also opens the door to another scenario: the birth of 100% virtual influencers, created on a desk by some company. It may seem like a concept straight out of an episode of Black Mirror, but in reality it is nothing that absurd or revolutionary. Virtual YouTubers (known as VTuber) have been around for a few years now, although in their case they are real people hidden behind the features of anime-style characters. The most famous is undoubtedly KizunaAI, played by the Japanese voice actress Nozomi Kasuga. In the case of virtual influencers, we should go a step further, combining features created from scratch with an invented personality, perhaps based on a complex algorithm.
Those who doubt the success of such an operation make the mistake of underestimating the popularity achieved by some fictional characters over the years. Hatsune Miku, for example, was born as the mascot of the speech synthesizer Vocaloid2, but over time its popularity has grown so much that it has become a real virtual idol. She even “performed” at various concerts organized in Japan and other countries, which have achieved great success. In short, the precedents are not lacking and it is only a matter of time before the first 100% digital influencer upsets the world. Or at least the Metaverse.
