The interest in virtual reality has once again reached a fairly high peak of attention. Or perhaps it would be fairer to say that interest is in virtual worlds following the announcement of Meta (formerly Facebook) about the creation of the already known as Metaverse. And one of the last to express its clear intention to take advantage of this new open path is Telefónica.
The operator has taken advantage of one of its conferences at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, of whose organizing entity (the GSMA) it is a prominent member, to announce that it is launching an open innovation hub. Telefónica launches itself in search of startups with innovative ideas to take advantage of the new virtual world and it does so through Wayra and the new open2metaverse. By the way, the Telefónica stand at the MWC can now be visited from the metaverse.
If you have ideas on how to take advantage of the Metaverse, Telefónica is looking for you
Telefónica puts Wayra to work to try to build an ecosystem of technology companies with fresh and innovative ideas on how to take advantage of the new Metaverse that is still opening up to the different possibilities it offers. It has been communicated in the 4YFN talk by Chema Alonso, CDO of Telefónica, under the roof of the Fira de Barcelona where the 2022 edition of the Mobile World Congress is held.
Through Chema Alonso and using Wayra, Telefónica creates Open2metaverse, a “global search call to support companies with the best technologies with metaverse applications to grow and reach a global scale more quickly”. The new Open2metaverse will seek to connect these companies with Telefónica to develop uses for the virtual metaverse.
Telefónica indicates that it is hunting for new use cases in connectivity, devices, virtual platforms, identity tools, marketplaces and even NTFs. The operator says that Open2metaverse is a joint project that will use the different initiatives of Wayra X, Telefónica Ventures “and the seven hubs that Wayra has in Latin America and Europe.”