Profile Interview: Thomas Johann Lorenz

CEO and co-founder of JOURNEE

We catch up with Thomas Johann Lorenz (pictured), CEO and co-founder of JOURNEE and discuss the metaverse and what can we expect from this new technology, How does the metaverse work and how does it differ from virtual reality and how is the metaverse shaping the future of our online experience.

What exactly is the metaverse and what can we expect from this new technology?

The metaverse is the next iteration of the internet. It is a more humanistic technology experience, blurring the lines between the physical and digital world. It is a meta-technology, enabling eg new business models, forms of commerce, entertainment, community, culture, learning, and experiences.

How does the metaverse work and how does it differ from virtual reality?

Virtual reality requires us to wear complicated and unusual hardware. But the metaverse is not accessible only through technical gimmicks - on the contrary, it will become much more organically integrated into our daily lives. For this to be possible, we need technical innovations that enable new digital experiences - such as our JOURNEE solution, which provides metaverse experiences directly in the browser on any device.

How is the metaverse shaping the future of our online experience?

First, there will be less and less of a hard-line separating our online experience and physical experience. Fundamentally, the metaverse will ensure that "online" is not just about efficiently accessing information. Hard information is only 7% of human communication. That's what the internet has been about for the last few decades. But the remaining 93% addresses human emotions - proximity, gestures, feelings, sound, subtle memories, and so on. The metaverse will tap into that unaddressed 93%.

What does doing business in the metaverse look like for companies?

The metaverse will fundamentally change and improve the way digital communication works. This also applies to how brands communicate with their customers, how celebrities connect with their fans, and how knowledge content is shared. Here we will see a multitude of new business models, the true scope of which we only see hints of today.

What is your background in and what led you to work with this cutting-edge technology?

I have been an entrepreneur since I was 10 years old and decided to launch a family magazine. Since then, I've gone through various stages always with the goal of bringing people together. Most recently I founded a global digital B2B platform for the fashion industry, Veee. com, which was acquired in NYC in 2019. I then teamed up with my longtime friend Christian Mio Loclair - one of the most talented creative technologists of our time. Together, we have made it our mission to drive fundamental innovations in technology. We then started research on JOURNEE in Q4-2020.