Metaverse exhibition, future trends
Among the many possible metaverse business models, metaverse exhibitions have already taken shape. Earlier, in the article “Metaverse Advertising, Models and Opportunities” published by 01 Blockchain, it was mentioned that metaverse exhibitions are a form of metaverse advertising. Indeed, companies participating in the exhibition hope to gain more popularity and partners through advertising.
In fact, the metaverse exhibition has received the attention of many large companies, pioneered the layout, and launched related solutions. Metaverse exhibitions have broken physical and geographical limitations and expanded publicity effects. In the future, as demand rises, more and more metaverse exhibition cases will appear around us, and metaverse exhibitions will also become popular in the predictable future.
Metaverse exhibition, future trends
In the past 2 years, the metaverse has received the attention of many people, giving people many limitless fantasies. And with the advancement of technology and changes in people's lifestyles, future metaverse exhibitions will be a future trend.
In terms of a relatively complete definition, an online virtual exhibition refers to the main goal of creating a virtual experience. Through a combination of technical means such as 3D modeling, virtual reality, augmented reality, digital twins, multimedia animation, video technology, social technology, etc., the virtualization and digitization of display objects such as exhibition participants, exhibition spaces, booths, exhibits, and docking projects can create an immersive display environment for exhibition visitors. In fact, metaverse exhibitions are a derivative of offline exhibitions, adding experiences that cannot be obtained offline to offline exhibitions.
Today, the epidemic is still recurring, and mass travel is restricted. In this context, metaverse exhibitions have received more attention. With the advancement of technology, people want more fresh experiences and want the exhibition to be more convenient, without having to go to an exhibition by boat, etc. In fact, regardless of whether there is an epidemic or not, the metaverse is a future trend; the pandemic has only accelerated the process of digital transformation.
Big companies rush to lay out metaverse exhibition-related businesses
On August 19, 2022, Baidu Xiyang officially launched the metaverse exhibition solution in Beijing, launching a one-stop metaverse conference and exhibition service, which can achieve a convenient metaverse exhibition experience of 3 days of customization and 1 day exhibition. For example, in terms of metaverse exhibitions, curators can obtain 8 exhibition templates of different sizes and styles to support various exhibition types, including paintings, video animations, sculptures, installation art, and NFT digital collections. Whether building a 200-square-meter compact display space or constructing a 1,000-square-meter large-scale art exhibition, curators only need to prepare exhibition materials such as exhibits, promotional posters, and guide information, and can host their own metaverse exhibition as quickly as needed in a week. At present, Baidu Xiyang has provided one-stop metaverse services for dozens of brands in various fields such as automobiles, marketing, culture, art, technology, etc., and will continue to create more metaverse exhibition cases in the fields of pan-entertainment and finance in the future.
Baidu metaverse venues and ancillary exhibition areas of various specifications
In addition to Baidu, NetEase also released its own online exhibition system, NetEase Yaotai. NetEase Yaotai is an immersive event system owned by NetEase Fuxi. Through technology such as replicating real offline meeting scenes and real-time migration of facial expressions, NetEase Yaotai breaks the traditional video conferencing model and brings users a more technological and immersive event experience. At present, NetEase Yaotai has been successfully used in many events such as the Henan Smart Cultural Tourism Conference.
NetEase Yaotai
Other companies also have varying degrees of layout in the metaverse exhibition field. For example, Daoke Cloud has built its own exhibition metaverse platform based on 3D, VR virtual reality, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies, and recreates offline exhibition scenes 1:1 through live shooting and 3D panoramic imaging.
The benefits and value of metaverse exhibitions
First, innovative scenarios bring new experiences. With virtual cloud venues, digital virtual hosts, AR special effects, holographic projection presentations, live forum broadcasts, remote guest connections, AI artificial intelligence customer service, cloud reporting, cloud signing, and the application of intelligent simultaneous interpretation technology, more than ten innovative application scenarios have been created for metaverse exhibitions, which can greatly expand and enrich the exhibition experience. Currently, virtual exhibitions are mostly flat, making it difficult for the two parties to interact. The metaverse, on the other hand, allows participants to move freely (for example, currently they can only sit in front of a computer and can only stare at a screen, and the sense of participation is much lower). After registering for an account through a web link, participants can enter the metaverse exhibition in just ten seconds. Just like entering an offline exhibition, they will appear in the virtual exhibition space as virtual characters.
Next, it was a breakthrough in virtual space, which improved marketing effectiveness. One limitation of offline exhibitions comes from physical space. Because physical space is limited, the number of visitors that even the best exhibition can receive is limited to a certain size. There is no problem with virtual space. In theory, any number of people can participate, breaking through the limitations of time and space, and receiving interested audiences to the greatest extent possible. However, a sharp increase in the participating audience means an increase in the potential customer base, and the number of conversions will naturally increase, which can effectively improve the advertising and marketing effectiveness of an exhibition. This is what many companies and advertisers want to see. For example, a typical traditional concert can only accommodate 30,000 people at most, but if held in the metaverse, it can accommodate an unlimited number of spectators.
Metaverse exhibition case
In December 2021, Macau hosted the first BEYOND International Science and Technology Innovation Expo. More than 300 large multinational enterprises, unicorn innovators, and startups from all walks of life participated in the exhibition, and the number of online participants exceeded 3.5 million. Exhibitors at the BEYOND International Science and Technology Innovation Fair can not only set up booths at the BEYOND venue in Macau, but also create virtual booths in the exhibition area of the Metaverse Expo to display and express the company's future ideas, latest technology and research results in innovative technical ways, and expand brand influence.
On May 27, 2022, the first digital exhibition symposium of the World Digital Economy Forum was held at the Vodafu Metaverse Convention and Exhibition Center. It also adopted an online+offline model, allowing visitors to experience the power of technology through the metaverse exhibition. When entering the metaverse venue, visitors have their own unique ID, which is displayed above the character's head. The layout of the online exhibition follows the offline exhibition format. There are booths, roads, and many virtual people entering the venue. The exhibition hall is all around, and through the map function, it is possible to reach the designated exhibition hall more quickly. The participating manufacturers presented their products in 3D in a three-dimensional form in the exhibition hall, so that the audience could intuitively see the products. The exhibition can also enable real-time online voice communication with multiple people, and virtual characters can also walk into the live broadcast room and watch the live broadcast in the live broadcast room.
World Digital Economy Forum's first digital exhibition symposium
On August 9, 2022, the Guangdong International Tourism Industry Expo adopted an online and offline integrated exhibition model to create an immersive metaverse scene for the first time. The metaverse scene built by the Guangdong International Tourism Industry Expo is equipped with functions such as a cloud display center, cloud mall, and cloud activity center to enable one-stop cloud services such as cloud experience, cloud exhibition, cloud trading, cloud promotion, and cloud negotiation. At the same time, based on Unreal Engine development technology, this year's travel fair showcased offline global cultural hotels, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao joint booths, etc. on a 1:1 scale, and set up offline VR cloud tours and interactive metaverse experience checkpoints. It can be said that the Guangdong International Tourism Industry Expo has integrated online and offline exhibitions.
Beijing Chengjian Xincheng Investment and Development Co., Ltd. used Baidu's metaverse exhibition solutions to help many customers fulfill their wishes to see houses in Sanya affected by the epidemic (the company has projects in Sanya and other places, and because of the pandemic, many people who want to see and buy houses have seen houses in the metaverse). This approach not only saves time, but also provides a more comprehensive understanding of the local situation.
