Social media group Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp – relies on XR technologies. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse vision combines augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) with online platforms. This fundamentally differentiates the concept of Metaverse from Second Life and other purely virtual platforms.
- The first Meta experience store opens in the Bay Area (Photo: Meta)
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- The first Meta experience store opens in the Bay Area (Photo: Meta)
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- The first Meta experience store opens in the Bay Area (Photo: Meta)
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- The first Meta experience store opens in the Bay Area (Photo: Meta)
Dedicated hardware such as VR headsets or AR glasses are required to immerse yourself in the full Metaverse experience. In order to bring end customers closer to hardware devices and enable early experiences with Metaverse applications, Meta now relies on its own stores.
Through interactive demos, store visitors can make video calls with Portal, learn how Ray-Ban Stories AR glasses can help you discover the world around you, and immerse yourself in virtual reality with the Quest 2 headset.
“Once people experience the technology, they can appreciate it better. If we’ve done our job well, people should go tell their friends, “You need to take a look at the Meta Store,” said Martin Gilliard, Director of the Meta Store.
MicroLED enables immersive metaverse experiences
The Quest 2 high resolution large curved LED wall is of particular interest to the digital signage industry. The LED wall also displays the same content to friends accompanying the Quest 2 VR headset user.
At around 140 square meters, the Meta store has a relatively small footprint. But the social media group wants to gain experience with stationary stores first, so it was also important to open a location near the headquarters of Meta Reality Labs, where hardware and experiences for the Metaverse are developed.
“With the store here in Burlingame, we have more opportunities to experiment and put the customer experience at the heart of our development. What we learn here will help us define our future retail strategy. – Martin Gilliard, Head of Meta Store. “The Meta Store will help people connect to our products, which may be the gateway to the Metaverse in the future. We do not sell the Metaverse in our store, but we hope people will walk in and out knowing a little more about how our products can help them connect to the Metaverse.”
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individual commentary by Florian Rotberg
According to the motto “Seeing is believing”, Meta now makes the Metaverse tangible and tangible for end customers. The Metaverse concept and key VR and AR technologies are complex because they break down learned boundaries between the real and digital world. Stores in shopping malls allow a large number of consumers to try out the new technology and the new platform for themselves. Meta hopes to “demystify” the complex world of Metaverse.
The Facebook group is following Amazon’s strategy, which has also focused on stationery stores with the introduction of the Alexa digital assistance service. Consumers also had to try Alexa in the store before ordering it to take home.
Chances are that Meta will also be represented in many malls around the world with its own Metaverse stores in the coming years. And with that comes larger digital signage touchpoints that visualize the immersive experience for surrounding visitors.
Digital Interactive: DooH meets the Metaverse