Niantic, an augmented reality platform that was spun out of Google raised $300 million to ramp up investment into the metaverse. The company which is behind hit-breaking games such as Pokemon Go is now valued at $9 billion.
Its proposition of what the “metaverse” is much different from Facebook. Facebook wants to bring everyone into the virtual world, whereas Niantic wants to bring it into the real world. It’s a blend of realism and virtual reality which is often termed augmented reality.
John Hanke, Niantic CEO said that he likes the idea of the virtual to the physical world. “At Niantic, we believe humans are the happiest when their virtual world leads them to a physical one,” he said. “Unlike a sci-fi metaverse, a real-world metaverse will use technology to improve our experience of the world as we’ve known it for thousands of years.”
It’s going to be an interesting decade to see how far the whole idea around the “metaverse” will develop. Various tech companies see it as an opportunity that they can capitalize on and become a leader in or the main contributor.
Niantic’s success with Pokemon Go generated over $1 billion in 2020. It goes to show that there is a market for these types of products. Pokemon Go is niche-based and has a lot of video game followers.
It will be a unique and profitable challenge if companies can cross the concepts and ideas into everyday life.
