The 2022 Metaverse Mutual Sharing Conference, held in Beijing from August 16 to 19, was themed "Openness and Compatibility." The event organizers aimed to promote the integrated development of the metaverse industry.

CGTN sat down with Peter Ye, a co-secretary general at China Mobile Communications Association Metaverse Industry Committee, to discuss why connectivity is essential to the emerging industry.

"A closed system will eventually move towards a state that we call 'dead silence,'" Ye said, adding that only an open state can incorporate information and energy from the outside world so the industry can be vibrant.

"It's the same for the metaverse industry. If the metaverse is a closed system, people may have some curiosity and freshness at the beginning, but gradually if they can't get in touch with more characters and objects, or build new social relationships, the industry will definitely end up in 'dead silence,'" he said.

Compatibility, which mainly refers to the interconnection of things like information, energy and digital assets between metaverses, is also vital to the industry, the expert told CGTN.

Metaverse is still an 'isolated island'

Many tech giants in the world are building their own metaverses, such as Meta's Horizon Worlds and Baidu's XiRang, but there is no interconnection between them.

"In the early stage of the development of the metaverse, the first three to five years, the industry will be in a state of 'a hundred flowers in bloom,'" Ye said. "But now, it's actually an isolated island."

The expert saw this problem as one of the biggest obstacles in the development of the metaverse, and mentioned one possible solution to it – wallet addresses.

A wallet address is a group of letters and numbers used for sending and receiving cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

"If I have a unique wallet address, I can travel in different metaverses," he explained, adding that there may be a lot of room for imagination in the future.

"For example, can information such as your physical appearance, height and face shape attach to the wallet address? This is what we expect, and it may be a challenge to overcome."

Problems that could arise from rapid development

The rapid development of the metaverse industry might create some problems. Ye gave an example from his own life. The expert bought a VR headset during this year's Spring Festival promotion, and got addicted to it.

"After wearing the headset, you don't see or hear the world the way you used to, it looks more 3D and vivid," he said. "Not to mention the kids, I think it's very easy for adults to get caught up in it."

Ye thinks it's important to prevent addiction when people are in an environment that allows them to fully release their senses.

He also expressed concern that people can get hurt psychologically more easily in an immersive environment like the metaverse.

"When you look at a flat mobile phone, you are a bystander. But when you enter a 3D environment, you become an interactive insider, you are more involved physically and psychologically. At this time, even virtual harm could cause psychological damage to you," he noted.

"We have heard of some incidents of sexual harassment in the metaverse. I think this may be one of the challenges we face in the lifelike environment of the metaverse, and I think there should be some relevant legal measures to deal with it."

How far are we from the metaverse era?

Humans are considered to have entered the metaverse era when people devote 50 percent of their time to the metaverse world. Ye believes that it's a long way from 50 percent at this point. He used cloud computing as an analogy.

"The word 'cloud computing' appeared, and the industry started around 2006 or 2007. About 10 years later, people realized that cloud computing is a way to go forward. However, even though people think cloud computing has potential, the global revenue of cloud computing did not account for much of the global IT revenue," according to Ye.

The expert said the metaverse is different from clouding computing because it incorporates so many aspects, such as computing, community organizations, the economy, and even ethics and legislation.

"I think we may have to have some patience, it might take 15 years, 30 years or even longer for us to enter the metaverse era," he said.

Videographer: Zheng Hao

Video editor: Zhang Rongyi

Cover image: Xing Cheng