STEPVR is Expanding to Thailand, and Why We Are Bullish That Asia Will Win This Metaverse Race
#newsletter #trends #metaversetrends #vr #stepvr #updates #expansion
Phew what exciting past few weeks we have had in Web3 as the aftermath of the FTX saga continues to unfold! The stories that are going around just keep getting weirder and weirder everyday.
As a metaverse company without any token or NFT, we are feeling grateful to be spared from the explosion, yet all the more so we feel determined to show the world how to build the next generation internet. We want to show the world what it means to be able to step into a 3D internet and to have a truly immersive digital economy.
Credit : STEPVR
First off, we have some good news to share. We are expanding to Thailand! We just incorporated our Thailand company Petabit with a local shareholder and partnered up with Hahama Co Ltd, an entertainment agency in Bangkok with over 70 arcade game stores across the country that we are going to transform into metaverse portals. As far as I know, this is going to be the first large-scale, multiplayer VR experience in the whole country, and it is going to be powered by STEPVR. How cool is that?
We are paving ways for local Thailand game producers to start producing content with our hardware and software technology. We are going to have local influencers and businesses adopting our iMetaStar Avatar-as-a-Service solution. Exciting times ahead!
Why Thailand
We like Thailand because it has a young energetic population with a lot of appetite for growth and entertainment. Numbering around 71 million people (as of the statistics in 2021), with over 70% of it in the productive age group between 15-65 years old, Thailand shows big promise to adopt VR en masse. It does not have any significant VR products in the first place, but it has a pretty high GDP, at about 21 057 USD, it ranks just right after China.
Credit : wise.com
Every day in the country you see people going out in throngs, from morning to night time, populating shopping malls, concerts, fairs, pubs, and nightclubs. So the appetite is there, the demand is there. People have purchasing power and they are looking for opportunities to spend, to be entertained, to mix and mingle with others. Most importantly, there is no significant VR product yet in the country, hence this seems to be a big gap in a booming market that STEPVR can easily fulfill.
Culturally, I am impressed by just how open minded, progressive, and innovative Thailand is. They seem to be open to imagination and possibilities. Just early this year in June, Thailand has become the first country in Asia that legalised cannabis for medical and recreational use, and talks have been underway to decriminalise or legalise other mind-expanding plant-medicine.
It does not seem to be a far stretch that this country is going to be open-minded enough to adopt the concept of the metaverse, the next generation internet.
Why Asia
Credit : worldatlas.com
From the earliest personal computers to smartphones and then to the metaverse, countries and regions of the world have competed to dominate every generation of computing platforms.
In the last two generations of computing platform ‘competition’, the United States took the lead and they still continue to lead today, with Europe, which once dominated the industrial revolution in the 18th century, receded into the background.
Asia has been slowly catching up. It has by now completed the accumulation of hardware and software technologies and is poised to take off to lead the next generation of computing platform. Today, we understand that this next generation internet is called The Metaverse and Web3. Asian representative forces such as China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore have started to aggressively secure global market shares.
Why is it that I am bullish Asia will win this metaverse race?
Learning from history, just like what the PC and smartphone industries have gone through, the worldwide competition of the metaverse is bound to revolve around three indicators: key technologies, manufacturing capacity, and the number of users.
Key technologies focus on two categories of hardware and software. Hardware means display technology, computing chips, storage, and interactive technologies. Meanwhile the basic software covers operating systems, rendering engines, development environments, simulation systems, and so on.
Judging the development from the PC period since the 1980s, to the advent of the smartphone era in 2007, to the metaverse and Web3 today, across Europe, United States, and Asia, you will clearly see that Asia has the opportunity to stand out in the next round of the metaverse race.
Credit : STEPVR
The PC Revolution
Since the 1980s, the introduction of personal computers for the household market has given rise to Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Apple, HP, Dell, Compaq, SUN, and several other household names. The United States has dominated this computer revolution and secured its position as the number one PC technology provider in the world.
Microsoft and INTEL created an alliance called Wintel. Operating systems and computing chips continued to upgrade, and display technology evolved from the initial CRT to LCD. The PC software quickly evolved and upgraded the outreach of their application to cover all work, gaming, and entertainment industries.
In the later stage of the PC revolution phase, Japan, South Korea, and other Asian forces, such as Fujitsu, Toshiba, NEC, Samsung, Hyundai, and so on, relied on their manufacturing advantages and technological innovation capabilities, to emerge as leaders in making storage, mainframe, and PCs. However, they could not compare with the United States, which back then, still had the best talent, the best programmers, and the best operating softwares.
The Mobile Internet Revolution
In 2007, Apple launched the first generation of the iPhone. The emergence of the smartphone era, with the annual global shipments of 700–800 million smartphones and 6 billion holdings, created the mobile internet market that we now recognise as the next computing platform.
The United States remains the leader for the PC internet, while the European countries lag behind. However when it comes to mobile internet adoption, Asian countries such as China and India’s technological powers are rising, strongly indicating the main source of the world’s economic growth is coming from Asia.
Based on the indicators of manufacturing capacity and the number of users, Asia has certainly become the world manufacturing center and supply chain center. With more than 2 billion Internet users- China, India, Vietnam, Philippines, and Indonesia are still growing rapidly with a combined market size, far exceeding the United States and Europe. Asia has also shown vigorous growth in the fields of display, computing chips, storage systems, operating systems, databases, application software, etcetera.
Credit : Our World in Data
Meanwhile, as per Moore’s Law, the average computer’s performance continued to improve exponentially while prices continued to decrease. In 1965, Gordon Moore posited that roughly every two years, the number of transistors on microchips will double. Commonly referred to as Moore's Law, this phenomenon suggests that computational progress will become significantly faster, smaller, and more efficient over time. At this point, Moore’s Law is approaching its end, so the existing computers won’t be able to improve that much faster despite microchip redesigns, hence the only way forward is to shift to another new computing platform.
The Metaverse and Web3
In 2021, the metaverse and Web3 became a popular buzzword. The next generation of computing platforms will soon be ready, and Asia is expected to take center stage.
Throughout the 60s and the 80s a lot of Asian countries were still struggling with wars and colonisation. However now, in the 21st century, the Asian countries are independent, thriving, and growing rapidly while the western sphere continues to take the backseat. As Ray Dalio predicted in his book Principles for Dealing with The Changing World Order : Why Nations Succeed or Fail, The United States is now approaching its last years of superpower cycle, and giving way to Asian countries.
Credit : Financial Times
From the key fundamental technologies of the metaverse and Web3, the United States is not particularly leading the way. Although they have slight advantages in the fields of computing chips and operating systems, the United States is on par with other countries in terms of display and computing storage.
In terms of interactive technologies on the market, Asia is in the lead in technologies such as VR haptic gloves, robotic haptic feedback, and omnidirectional treadmill. Compared to the United States, Asia has advanced their manufacturing capabilities. Most importantly, Asia has the largest market, which will play a vital role in the race to rule the next generation of computing platforms.
Credit : STEPVR
Furthermore, unlike during the PC computing platform, with independence and education, now Asian tech talent has developed to the standards of the talent in the western countries, yet at significantly lower prices. This gives a lot of Asian technology companies a competitive advantage in manufacturing cheaper and selling their products at a higher profit margin, thus creating a positive cash flow to grow more aggressively.
The western countries are not quite ready yet to wave the white flag, and one thing for sure, the Americans and the Europeans are better at branding and marketing their products than the Asians, perhaps compounded by the fact that the English language has become the global language of the internet.
The race is on. The winners have yet to be set in stone. It is worth noting that in the battle of the new generation of computing platforms a.k.a the metaverse, the few eventual winners will rule not only the next internet era, but also the geopolitical dominance of the world. May the force be with us.