OUT OF Is the metaverse the future of the internet? It’s already here with Big Tech banking on it, and it just might unlock untold economic opportunities for Africa. BY TIANA CLINE
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T FEELS LIKE SCI-FI WHEN WE TALK ABOUT it. If you think about the internet that we look at, the metaverse is going to be an internet that we are inside of,” says Derya Matras, Facebook’s Vice President for Africa, the Middle East and Turkey. “Over the last few years, we’ve been observing social communication getting more and more immersive. I remember being in high school and dreaming of having a phone that I could take with me everywhere so I could talk to my best friend. Even being able to talk to my parents over video felt like sci-fi twenty years ago. It’s important that we observe where the technology is moving already.” Matras explains that the metaverse will be made up of a set of digital experiences that seamlessly interconnect. A deeper and wider virtual reality (VR) that is far more than social media and video games. This is one of the reasons Facebook changed its company name to Meta at the end of October 2021. “Facebook is primarily known as a social media company but we actually define ourselves as a tech company that has the mission of connecting people and businesses. As social technology evolves, we will also,” she says. “Obviously, the metaverse is not there yet and it’s going to take a good ten years to build it all together as an industry.”
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The metaverse is going to give a lot of opportunities to Africa but the connectivity has to be there. – Derya Matras
Matras believes that the metaverse has the potential to unlock huge economic opportunities for Africa. As a company, Facebook has already made some significant investments into bringing more affordable broadband to the continent. They’re in the process of building 2Africa, the longest undersea cable in the world which will effectively connect three continents – Africa, Europe and
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