Analyst: By 2030, “The Metaverse” Will Have More Avatars than Live People

And what does that mean?

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

I have 30 years experience in “Metaverse” technology and businesses, starting in 1992 with a small VR startup that even Neal Stephenson took notes on. More recently, I’ve worked on or advised a total of 10 different AR headsets. I’ve helped execs at Disney, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and a dozen smaller companies by prototyping and exploring a range of approaches that were difficult to imagine or even build, let alone ship commercially at the time, just to better understand the future, and in many cases act on it.

That’s not to brag. Others have done the same thing in other companies with similar experiences. We’ve worked on concepts ranging from entertainment to business, lifestyle, health and education, where we had to figure out what the value was, and if any actual consumers would be interested and benefit from these ideas. Mostly we worked about 5+ years into the future. If there’s an awesome new concept getting tweeted about, there’s a decent chance me or someone like me worked on it and tested people’s reactions five years ago.

I mention this fairly niche experience to squarely call bullshit on the current crop of “metaverse experts,” most with only a few years experience here, taking the stage to speak confidently, without…