By Daniel Shin
Two unexpected by-products of "working from home" are the rising stock market and the growing popularity of multiple or side jobs. I'm not saying that it is right or wrong, but the current COVID-induced economic uncertainty pushes people to look around for additional sources of income, concerned as they are about maintaining economic stability.
Even high-income earners who already make a comfortable living sometimes have surprising part-time jobs in their spare time, as the pandemic is allowing them to save time from counterproductive long commutes, business trips and meeting schedules. Working from home means retaining more energy, generally speaking.
One of the big aspirations behind the metaverse is to contribute to the creator economy in a big way. The metaverse is a metaphysical universe where users can create and be anything they want. Many tech giants already have skin in the game and are supporting more creators to socialize in the metaverse and help them make a living from their platforms.
More paid online experiences, subscription services and virtual merch sales will be prevalent in the coming years. It is no surprise to have more than 10,000 creators making serious money in the Roblox gaming app economy. There is a girl in her mid-20s who has sold over 1.3 million virtual items via avatar app Zepeto. Not to mention the YouTube or TikTok madness, the creator economy is a global affair.
It is the year that we prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I). Many corporations and institutions are moving into building inclusive and equitable cultures that honor all walks of life. DE&I initiatives need cross-organizational support from every level of the organization.
DE&I culture won't build itself, though. Culture is like the glue that holds the organization together during both good times and bad. However, creating organizational culture during the COVID-19 pandemic is not an easy task because human interaction has been significantly reduced. People get hired without meeting face-to-face and fired over Zoom.
There is no high table on Zoom. So, all delegates and attendees participate in a call together as equals. Remote work has leveled the playing field in many positive ways. Video conferences on Zoom have reduced boundaries.
We get to see more junior associates in video meetings when they would have been otherwise excluded. When senior leadership is attending a meeting from their kitchen while pets are running around in the background, it helps employees make a stronger bond with their boss as a human being.
No one is perfect, though there are people who care and want to look better on Zoom. To them, lighting is critical. There is a chroma key background people can easily set up in Zoom. It is like a bit of real estate voyeurism as the natural background says a lot about who they are. People often dress up head-to-waist, not head-to-toe, in bright colors with business on top and pajamas on bottom.
People try to find the nicest background or pick virtual wallpaper to look professional. It is natural for people to show their face on Zoom and boost their online presence for more human interaction. But sometimes it can be too much. There is no place to hide when video is mandatory on Zoom.
However, the metaverse gives you freedom. You can be anything you want to be and create the texture, background and ambiance of that experience as you wish. Plus, the metaverse will represent a huge opportunity to amplify the diversity and inclusion of varying voices. Seriously, who cares who you are and what you do when you come out in your own avatar inside a virtual world?
Metaverse platforms can attract diverse audiences irrespective of gender, age, race or sexual orientation. The metaverse brings people together to create social connections, and helps them better understand each other without prejudices about their appearance. One clear thing we've witnessed during the pandemic is that the metaverse could help reduce biases based on race/ethnicity/nationality, geography and socioeconomic status.
When people are looking around in the metaverse, everyone looks alike and there are no strings attached. There are also no limits for creative self-expression in the metaverse. People can be also compensated purely for their creative endeavors, not to mention non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can be produced.
We will see a major transformation in the world of work. The metaverse is supposed to be a playground, but it can be a productive workspace as well. Facebook has pledged in a recent announcement to become a metaverse company and accumulated augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) assets to build virtual platforms over years.
Microsoft is also doing the same, but it intends to focus on the enterprise metaverse, rather than on a social venue. We're all talking about the metaverse with our own deep social affinities. Many commentators say that Facebook will also ultimately bring people together for work, while on the other hand Microsoft could do so for fun.
The good news is that the metaverse could pave the way for labor equality by tearing down borders, limitations and norms between different material worlds. In the real, material world, thanks to the digital transformation, people can already choose to live outside cities but can still actively participate in the high-value creator economy through digital labor no matter where they are or how they work.
The online game industry is already sitting on a potentially huge boom in the avatar economy, which I believe is a predecessor to the metaverse economy, where virtual goods are widely sold and traded on a secondary market. More consumers will shift their spending to virtual goods, services and experiences in the coming years.
Technology, trade and financial globalization have caused income inequality in the real world. There is already a labor imbalance in the metaverse, too. For example, mining minerals in online games like "StarCraft" is nothing new.
People in low-income countries spend days and nights collecting digital items for sale inside or outside of the game, so to speak. However, the value of digital labor will grow as the metaverse expands, and it will create unparalleled opportunities.
Hypothetically, everyone could be treated fairly in the metaverse, and everyone seems to be at the same starting point. No one regulates the metaverse yet, but it will be built and highly calibrated to meet the ever-changing needs of the market. Can the metaverse create a different world by any chance? Will existing tech giants lead and dominate the metaverse or will another underdog hero emerge soon? We will see.
Daniel Shin is a venture capitalist and senior luxury fashion executive, overseeing corporate development at MCM, a German luxury brand. He also teaches at Korea University.
 |
Even high-income earners who already make a comfortable living sometimes have surprising part-time jobs in their spare time, as the pandemic is allowing them to save time from counterproductive long commutes, business trips and meeting schedules. Working from home means retaining more energy, generally speaking.
One of the big aspirations behind the metaverse is to contribute to the creator economy in a big way. The metaverse is a metaphysical universe where users can create and be anything they want. Many tech giants already have skin in the game and are supporting more creators to socialize in the metaverse and help them make a living from their platforms.
More paid online experiences, subscription services and virtual merch sales will be prevalent in the coming years. It is no surprise to have more than 10,000 creators making serious money in the Roblox gaming app economy. There is a girl in her mid-20s who has sold over 1.3 million virtual items via avatar app Zepeto. Not to mention the YouTube or TikTok madness, the creator economy is a global affair.
It is the year that we prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I). Many corporations and institutions are moving into building inclusive and equitable cultures that honor all walks of life. DE&I initiatives need cross-organizational support from every level of the organization.
DE&I culture won't build itself, though. Culture is like the glue that holds the organization together during both good times and bad. However, creating organizational culture during the COVID-19 pandemic is not an easy task because human interaction has been significantly reduced. People get hired without meeting face-to-face and fired over Zoom.
There is no high table on Zoom. So, all delegates and attendees participate in a call together as equals. Remote work has leveled the playing field in many positive ways. Video conferences on Zoom have reduced boundaries.
We get to see more junior associates in video meetings when they would have been otherwise excluded. When senior leadership is attending a meeting from their kitchen while pets are running around in the background, it helps employees make a stronger bond with their boss as a human being.
No one is perfect, though there are people who care and want to look better on Zoom. To them, lighting is critical. There is a chroma key background people can easily set up in Zoom. It is like a bit of real estate voyeurism as the natural background says a lot about who they are. People often dress up head-to-waist, not head-to-toe, in bright colors with business on top and pajamas on bottom.
People try to find the nicest background or pick virtual wallpaper to look professional. It is natural for people to show their face on Zoom and boost their online presence for more human interaction. But sometimes it can be too much. There is no place to hide when video is mandatory on Zoom.
However, the metaverse gives you freedom. You can be anything you want to be and create the texture, background and ambiance of that experience as you wish. Plus, the metaverse will represent a huge opportunity to amplify the diversity and inclusion of varying voices. Seriously, who cares who you are and what you do when you come out in your own avatar inside a virtual world?
Metaverse platforms can attract diverse audiences irrespective of gender, age, race or sexual orientation. The metaverse brings people together to create social connections, and helps them better understand each other without prejudices about their appearance. One clear thing we've witnessed during the pandemic is that the metaverse could help reduce biases based on race/ethnicity/nationality, geography and socioeconomic status.
When people are looking around in the metaverse, everyone looks alike and there are no strings attached. There are also no limits for creative self-expression in the metaverse. People can be also compensated purely for their creative endeavors, not to mention non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can be produced.
We will see a major transformation in the world of work. The metaverse is supposed to be a playground, but it can be a productive workspace as well. Facebook has pledged in a recent announcement to become a metaverse company and accumulated augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) assets to build virtual platforms over years.
Microsoft is also doing the same, but it intends to focus on the enterprise metaverse, rather than on a social venue. We're all talking about the metaverse with our own deep social affinities. Many commentators say that Facebook will also ultimately bring people together for work, while on the other hand Microsoft could do so for fun.
The good news is that the metaverse could pave the way for labor equality by tearing down borders, limitations and norms between different material worlds. In the real, material world, thanks to the digital transformation, people can already choose to live outside cities but can still actively participate in the high-value creator economy through digital labor no matter where they are or how they work.
The online game industry is already sitting on a potentially huge boom in the avatar economy, which I believe is a predecessor to the metaverse economy, where virtual goods are widely sold and traded on a secondary market. More consumers will shift their spending to virtual goods, services and experiences in the coming years.
Technology, trade and financial globalization have caused income inequality in the real world. There is already a labor imbalance in the metaverse, too. For example, mining minerals in online games like "StarCraft" is nothing new.
People in low-income countries spend days and nights collecting digital items for sale inside or outside of the game, so to speak. However, the value of digital labor will grow as the metaverse expands, and it will create unparalleled opportunities.
Hypothetically, everyone could be treated fairly in the metaverse, and everyone seems to be at the same starting point. No one regulates the metaverse yet, but it will be built and highly calibrated to meet the ever-changing needs of the market. Can the metaverse create a different world by any chance? Will existing tech giants lead and dominate the metaverse or will another underdog hero emerge soon? We will see.
Daniel Shin is a venture capitalist and senior luxury fashion executive, overseeing corporate development at MCM, a German luxury brand. He also teaches at Korea University.
![[INTERVIEW] YouTubers bridge Korean, Muslim and Latin American cultures](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/945e0052fe3c4dadb967f8bed43d0487.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Jung Woo shapes his character for Netflix's 'A Model Family'](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/c12496c720f74a2b8ae2498e540ce558.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
