Building the Metaverse Engine

Overall Volume and Sentiment Globally…
Before July 2021, the
Metaverse was
predominantly spoken about
in relation to gaming, with
Roblox hosting a ‘Metaverse
Champions’ event and Sony
investing $1 billion dollars into
Epic Games to bring the
Metaverse to fruition.
Conversation started to pick
up after July, when the term
‘Metaverse’ was becoming a
commonplace name and
when Mark Zuckerberg
started to voice his ideas
about what life with the
Metaverse would look like.
Post frequency and sentiment over time using all sources.
Note: a random sample for Twitter has been taken due to the large volume of posts.
Mentions of Metaverse
peaked on the 28th
and 29th
of October when Mark
Zuckerberg announced his
plans to rebrand Facebook as
Meta amid his vision of being
a pioneer in the Metaverse
landscape. From this point
onwards, the Metaverse has
remained a hot topic of
discussion.
As the Metaverse transitions
from an idea to reality, we
start to see the worries about
the future of Metaverse and
anger directed at Mark
Zuckerberg reflected by the
increase in negative
sentiment. However, we can
see that views on the
Metaverse remain
predominantly positive
throughout the year.
Clearly, the amount of hype around the metaverse is overwhelming. This hype has been driven by technology
companies preemptively claiming to be metaverse companies, or to be creating a metaverse.

… and in Belgium
Even The Smurfs are
expanding their adventures in
the metaverse and will have a
village hosted in The Sandbox
Copy of the website of ll’Echo of June 2nd
, 2022
Especially over the last weeks, we have been bombarded by news articles and podcasts discussion the Metaverse.
Belgium’s leading business newspapers Tijd/l’Echo have spent much time on it

Metaverse market opportunity
J.P. Morgan
• Estimate market of $1 Trillion
• Opportunities:
• Socialize: 60B messages
• Transact: $54B spent on virtual goods
• Own: $41B NFT market
As can be expected when the definition of the Metaverse is so blurry, market opportunity is also very broadly
defined, but consensus is growing that it is a trillion $ opportunity
Gartner
• By 2026, 25% of people will spend at least one hour a
day in the metaverse for work, shopping, education
and social media
• By 2026, 30% of organizations will have products
and services ready for metaverse
Companies
• Roblox: 202m users (9-12)
• Minecraft: 140m users (24)
• Fortnite: 80m users (18-24)
• Animal Crosssing: 35m users (20-30)
• Zepeta: 10m users
• The Sandbox 300k users
• Decantraland 300k users
Goldman Sachs
• Estimate market of $8 Trillion
Bloomberg
• The Metaverse market may reach $783m by 2024
representing a CAGR of 13%
• Metaverse market size will be 2.7x of gaming,
services and advertising

Microsoft participating to the hype - Satya on the Metaverse
Satya Nadella on Twitter:
"The metaverse is here, and
it’s not only transforming
how we see the world but
how we participate in it –
from the factory floor to the
meeting room. Take a look.
https://t.co/h5tsdYMXRD" /
Twitter
“We need to support many metaverse platforms, as well as a robust ecosystem of content, commerce and applications.”

And yet, the Metaverse was only one of ten topics
At Build 2022, Satya Nadella centered his keynote speech around 10 technologies that are relevant to developers in
the year to come

1992
Neal Stephenson coined
the term “metaverse” in his
novel Snow Crash, to
describe a 3D virtual space.
2002
Michael Grieves introduced
the concept and model of
the digital twin – the digital
counterpart of a physical
object.
2003
Philip Rosedale’s Linden
Lab’s released Second Life,
an online virtual world.
2004
World of Warcraft, an
online multiplayer
role-playing game, is
released by Blizzard
Entertainment.
2006
Roblox, an online platform
that allows users to create
and share games with
others is introduced.
2009
Bitcoin, the worlds first
successful cryptocurrency
and blockchain platform is
created.
2011
Ernest Cline introduced
many young people to the
concept of a virtual reality
world in his novel Ready
Player One.
2012
The concept of NFTs (Non-Fungible
Tokens) is introduced with the
creation of “Colored Coins,” in
which additional information is
incorporated onto a bitcoin so that
it is no longer fungible but unique.
The Metaverse on a timeline (1992-2015)
Fixed-line Internet
The area of the personal computer, with occasional access to
computing resources and an internet connection
Mobile Internet
Same architecture of the internet with hyper-scale centralized
platforms acting as intermediaries but new experiences.
Continuous access to compute and connectivity – an internet of
consumers

2015
Vitalik Buterin and Gavin
Wood launch the Ethereum
Network, along with the
ethereum blockchain.
2015
Decentraland’s first iteration of
an online virtual world is
created. It allocated “land” via
a proof of work algorithm.
2016
Introduction of Pokémon Go, a
game using augmented reality
technology to overlay a virtual
world onto the real world.
2017
Fortnite, a multiplayer video
game introduced many people
to the look and feel of the
metaverse and
cryptocurrency. Fortnite user
base totals 350 million.
2020
Travis Scott and Marshmello
perform in the video game
Fortnite to just under 30
million people.
2021
Microsoft announced Mesh, a
platform designed for virtual
collaboration across platforms.
2021
Facebook changed its name to
Meta and announced its plan
to bring the metaverse to life.
The Metaverse on a timeline (2015-2021)
Immersive Internet
Next iteration of the internet, where places, people and objects come together. Rather than access the internet, we will be in the
internet. In parallel, expectations are created that the internet will evolve to decentralized connected universes with no
intermediaries (web 3.0) – an internet of creators

So why now?
IoT
3D Printing
Virtual
Reality
Wearables
Mixed /
Augmented
Reality
Artificial
Intelligence
Machine
Learning
Big Data
Immersed
learning
IoE
Deep
learning Industry 4.0
Blockchain
Robotics
Quantum
Computing
5G
Visual
Computing
Rather being a technology, the metaverse is being created through a confluence of technologies

The Metaverse is under construction

The Metaverse defined
Elements (Gartner)
• Digital Currency; Marketplace / Digital Commerce;
NFTs; Digital Assets; Digital Humans
• Infrastructure; Device-Indepedence; Natural
Language Processing
• Gaming; Concerts and Social and Entertainment
Events; Online Shopping; Workplace; Social Media
Understanding and defining the metaverse is important because it influences our hypothesized vision of the future
and the strategic questions we choose to answer
Characteristics
• Decentralized: everyone has their own space and
content
• Persistent: never resets, pauses or ends, it continues
indefinitely (independent of your participation)
• Interoperable
• Synchronous: real-time
• Inclusive: infinitely accessible
• Economic: a fully functioning economy with its own
currency, markets and settlement systems
Fundamentals
• A creator economy with universal participation and a
need for universally accepted rules of behavior
• Digital Identity and common security standards and
processes
• Digital Ownership
• Digital Currency and Economy
• Digital Assets (and their universal transferability)
Addressed Problems
• Connecting with people across geos by creating a
sense of presence that substitutes physical
location
• Heightening entertainment with fuller, more
engaging experiences
• Integrating technology more fully and seamlessly
in our daily lives
• Augmenting the physical world with guiding info;
providing more functionality more efficiently than
in physical world; testing systems that would be
impractical with physical tests
System-related challenges
• Institutional philosophies on collab with others;
human norms and behavior
• Interchangeable tools and standards that make
interoperability across platforms possible
• Payment processes and platforms to power the
digital economy
• Asset ownership and storage with persistency
• Distribution of value created, including developer
and creator incentives
• Privacy and data protection
Layers of the Metaverse
• Experience: games, shopping, social, …
• Discovery: agents, stores, ad networks, curation
• Creator Economy: design tools, workflow, commerce
• Spatial Computing: 3D engines, VR/AR/XR,
geospatial
• Decentralization: Edge computing, AI, microservices,
blockchain
• Human Interface: mobile, smartglasses, voice, …
• Infrastructure

Microsoft’s Push

Building the Metaverse Engine
Consumer
· Focused on new, immersive consumer
engagements, with specific focus on
building market place capabilities
· Focus areas:
· Gaming
· Digital marketplaces
· Presence
Enterprise
• Focused on how knowledge workers
will utilize digital experiences to create
an immersive workspace
• Focus areas:
• workplace, hybrid and remote
work, virtual work environments,
new customer experiences
• Immersive learning and shared
experiences
• Virtual rooms/worlds, social
gathering
• Offerings: Mesh, Hololens, Teams
Industrial
• Fueled by real-time data and sensors
that will bring IOT, AI and AR/VR
together for continuous simulation with
digital twins
• Focused on efficiency, scale and
insights on the factory floor or in retail
• Offerings:
• Azure IOT suite, Azure AI capabilities
• D365 Guides, Layout, Remote Assist
• D365 Connected spaces
Cloud IOT/Data/AI Mesh
Identity/Security/Privacy Hololens
Infrastructure

Microsoft
Solutions for
the Metaverse

Focus on the Metaverse for Enterprise

Microsoft Mesh
Here can be anywhere
Feel presence Connect from anywhere
Experience together
Microsoft Mesh is at the core of our Enterprise Metaverse strategy. Microsoft Mesh enables presence and shared
experiences from anywhere through mixed reality. Mesh brings digital intelligence to the real world

1
st
Party
Mesh-enabled Apps
Mesh App for
HoloLens
AltspaceVR
Reimagined for Business
Microsoft Teams
Coming later
Microsoft
Dynamics
Coming later
Partner Apps
Coming later
Developer Platform
Get started with Microsoft Mesh
Mesh App for
HoloLens
Immersive
Presence
Spatial Maps
Holographic
Rendering Multiuser sync
The developer platform allows for accelerating development of collaborative Mixed Reality solutions with AI powered
tools, reaching users on multiple platforms and devices and scaling apps confidently by benefitting from Azure’s global
infrastructure that powers Mesh.
3
rd
Party
Infrastructure
Data
Developer
Platform
Application
Consumption

Announcing Mesh for Microsoft Teams
Avatars Immersive spaces
Feel presence with personalized avatars
Connect using live reactions represented through avatars
Enable users to mingle as if they are there in person
Collaborate spatially with M365 content integrated by default
Support for desktop, mobile, and head mounted displays

19
Duplicate in-person learning to improve knowledge retention

20
Get remote assistance to solve problems faster

21
Design together to ideate and iterate in 3D

22
Experiencia natural

Focus on the Metaverse for Industry

Azure Digital Twins
Evolving Industrial Metaverses
Realtime visibility and
engagement
Realtime Interaction
Realtime Simulation
and Control
At the core of the industry metaverse sits the concept of a digital twin, which provides the physical
contextualization and control needed to realize the full value of the data. It is estimated that in 2024 61% of data (76
ZB) will directly come from physical sources (IOT signals)

Metaverse solutions
Collaboration
Microsoft HoloLens Microsoft Mesh
Logic
Power Platform
Intelligence
Azure AI Autonomous Systems
Data
Azure Synapse Analytics
Location
Azure Maps
Modeling
Azure Digital Twins
Connectivity
Azure IoT
Physical world
Sensors
Devices/equipment
Edge
Infrastructure
Data
Developer
Platform
Application
Consumption

The Metaverse in the Financial Services Industry

Potential Metaverse Horizons in the Financial Services Ind.
Transform the Core
• 47% of bankers believe customers will use AR/VR as
an alternative channel by 2030 *
• Employee Engagement:
• Virtual HQ (see Accenture n-floor)
• Employee onboarding and collaboration
• Events, meeting and seminars
• Enable accessibility with Avatars
• Reskilling in the Metaverse (incl. role play)
• Customer engagement:
• Virtual trading desks
• Hybrid contact center
• Virtual Branches in the metaverse
• New ways to visualize and manage finances
• Operations
• Improved risk management across operations
and financial markets through enhanced
visualization
• Virtual experimentation
• Developer tools and sandboxes
One area of focus for Microsoft is CCF, a framework to build permissioned confidential blockchains. The focus is on
confidentiality and high-performance. Or DLT (distributed ledger Technology) to build cross-cloud blockchain
solutions that focus on portability and control
Transform Customers
• Helping customers becoming metaverse enabled
• Enable content creators and gamers to
commercialize their content
• New asset transfer mechanisms to ensure
pervasiveness (e.g. the New York stock exchange
filed a patent to provide an online marketplace for
NFTs, cryptos and digital media & artwork) **
• Provide virtual services
• Mortgage applications (explore property in the
metaverse)
• New products (10.7B NFTs sold in Q3 2021)
• e.g. financing NFT purchases
• Using NFTs as collateral
• Facilitating fractional ownership of NFTs
• Digital / Virtual identity
• Verification of identities
Transform Markets
• Decentralized markets
• Greater financial inclusion
• More transparent ESG markets
• Virtually expanded markets
• Data brokers
• Market places
(*) Source: How the metaverse will change banking | Accenture Banking Blog ** Source: NYSE Files Trademark Application for Its Own NFT Marketplace (coindesk.com)

Thank you