Lab Weekly - 06/24/2022
Examining the past and present of Web3, Plus, our analysis on the latest news and stats roundup
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Lab Weekly! This week, we’ll be diving into the Web3 domain and figure out where it comes from and where it is going. Want this newsletter in your inbox every Friday morning? Sign up for our mailing list here
The Long, Winding Road to Web 3.0
For all the buzz around “web3 technologies” in the media and tech world in recent years, many still seem confused about what the term actually means. Is it just another word for blockchain-powered networks, or is it something related to the metaverse? In this week’s original article, our Director of Client Service Ben Hone breaks down the past and present of web3 tech.
In case you missed it…
The Arrested Development of Virtual Reality
On Facebook’s push for its Oculus headsets, why VR is still nowhere near where it should be as a media channel despite the metaverse hype, and what it will take to get there eventually.
The State of the Creator Economy
As new creator tools and features continue to pop up during the Newfronts week, we dived into the latest data from our proprietary Futurecaster survey to glean some fresh insights on the state of the #CreatorEconomy, along with some best practices that brands can tap into.
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IKEA”s Latest AR App Can Erase Your Furniture To Showcase Its Own [Engadget]
IKEA is no stranger to AR -- the company was one of the early adopters to leverage mobile AR for 3D product previews with its IKEA Place app. This new feature rolling out to iKEA’s website and apps is noteworthy because it cleverly flips the general use case of AR, which is to overlay digital objects on surrounding environments, and uses it to digitally remove real-life objects in camera view, so as to make room for the virtual furniture that people could try and drop in their rooms. Augmenting a reality doesn’t always have to be about adding things to it – sometimes, less is more.
Related: Niantic moves beyond games with Lightship AR platform and a social network [The Verge]; Tim Cook once again teases Apple’s AR tech as headset delays continue [9to5Mac]
Twitter Makes It Easy For Shopify Merchants To Highlight Their Products [Engadget]
Shopify is having a busy week. On Wednesday, the ecommerce platform announced over one hundred new features, including support for NFTs, local shopping offers with Google, and more, at its first semi-annual showcase called Editions. The company is always great at providing merchants with low-code tools for building shopping sites, and helping them scale their businesses. Therefore, it is no surprise that it is also extending its infrastructure into social commerce with this new Twitter integration. Opted-in merchants can now add a Twitter sales channel app to their Shopify admin dashboard, which would automatically and regularly sync with Shopify merchants' catalogs. This ensures that all the product information is up-to-date across different sites.
Related: Shopify breaks out of the website with 100+ new features including NFTs, local shopping and more [TechCrunch]; Twitter allows Shopify merchants to sell up to 50 items [PYMNTS]
Meta, Microsoft, Epic Games And Others Join Forces To Develop Metaverse Standards [Engadget]
Companies interested in turning metaverse from a buzzword into a reality announced on Wednesday that they have formed The Metaverse Standards Forum. Apple, Roblox, and Google are notably missing from the list of participating companies, which includes proto-verse operators like Meta, Microsoft, and Epic Games, but also other peripheral players such as Adobe, Unity, Nvidia, and Sony. The forum, which aims to drive open interoperability, should make it easier for developers to build across platforms, with transferable user profiles, avatars, and digital goods. Consortiums like these are only effective if enough companies adopt their standards, though. See: the repeatedly delayed rollout of the Matter standard for smart home products.
Related: Meta is adding social hangouts to the Quest’s VR home space [The Verge]; Axe enlists popular Fortnite streamer to design in-game ‘Mistaverse’ [Marketing Dive]
By the end of 2022, Buy-Now-Pay-Later transaction value in the US will grow by 77.3% to reach $75.60 billion, per eMarketer’s latest forecast. More tempered growth will follow in the coming years, but sales will still surpass $100 billion by the end of 2024.
Privacy-oriented messaging app Telegram has amassed over 700 million monthly active users and is rolling out a premium tier with additional features, TechCrunch reports.
In 2022, SVOD services in the United States will generate revenue of $25.32 billion, up 13% from last year, according to PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2022–2026 report, Variety reports. The segment is projected to reach $33.59 billion by 2026, representing an 8.5% compound annual growth rate from 2021-26.
Also from the PwC report, social and casual gaming is fuelling a boom in the gaming sector:
Source: PwC
If you find our insights valuable and would like to have a deeper conversation on technology and media innovations, or need to sound smarter in a client meeting or a pitch, please feel free to reach out to our Group Director Josh Mallalieu!
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