Metaverse is increasingly becoming part of today’s technology discussion, with more companies now working to bring the new idea to life. Facebook seems to be at the forefront of the evolution, but some other companies are beginning to take steps to transform to metaverse, marking the kickoff of another 21^st century technology transition.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described metaverse as “the next chapter of internet” and “embodied internet where you’re in the experience.” It has gathered a lot of momentum since July, and now, companies are raising money to make it a reality in their products.

TechCrunch reports below, that Niantic, a California-based company has raised millions of dollars aiming to switch its products to the much touted metaverse.

Niantic, the augmented reality platform that’s developing games like Pokémon GO, raised $300 million from Coatue, valuing the company at $9 billion. The San Francisco-based startup, which initially spun out of Google, will use this money to build what it calls the “real-world metaverse.”

As early as August, Niantic founder and CEO John Hanke has referred to the metaverse — at least, the one that renders us bound to VR headsets, like in “Ready Player One” — as a “dystopian nightmare.” Unlike Facebook, which changed its company name to Meta to signal its investment in VR technology, Niantic wants to develop technology that brings people closer to the outside world. Earlier this month, Niantic unveiled its Lightship AR Developer Kit (ARDK), which makes tools to develop AR games publicly available for free to anyone who has a basic knowledge of the Unity game engine.

“At Niantic, we believe humans are the happiest when their virtual world leads them to a physical one,” Hanke said at the time. “Unlike a sci-fi metaverse, a real-world metaverse will use technology to improve our experience of the world as we’ve known it for thousands of years.”

The funding will help expand the ARDK, which has already been used by companies like Coachella, Historic Royal Palaces, Universal Pictures, SoftBank, Warner Music Group and the PGA of America to create augmented reality experiences. So, instead of using technology like VR headsets — which are still inaccessible to much of the population — AR projects mostly use smartphones to encourage people to explore their outside surroundings. You might walk by the same mural every day, for example, but in Pokémon GO, a user-generated Pokéstop description might tell you what that mural actually represents. Niantic says that tens of millions of people play Niantic’s games each month, walking more than 10.9 billion miles in their games since launch.

“Niantic is building a platform for AR based on a 3D map of the world that we believe will play a critical role in the next transition in computing,” said Matt Mazzeo, a general partner at Coatue. “We are excited to partner with Niantic because we see this infrastructure supporting a metaverse for the real world and helping to power the next evolution of the internet.”

The VR metaverse might be “dystopian” in Hanke’s eyes, but like any technology, AR isn’t without its problems. Niantic’s newest game, Pikmin Bloom, is designed around walking, which can be alienating to elderly or disabled players. Pokémon GO has a community of disabled players, but they’ve had to speak out about how certain small in-game tweaks can make the game much more accessible for people with limited mobility.

Still, Niantic’s vision offers an alternative to Meta’s headset-dependent plans. Pokémon GO remains a smash success — it earned over $1 billion in 2020 and is already on track to outpace that revenue this year, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower. Not all of its games are as beloved — the company recently announced it will shut down Harry Potter: Wizards Unite after in-app consumer spending and global installs dropped 57% year over year. But as independent developers get their hands on Niantic’s Lightship ARDK, we’ll see how far the concept of a “real-world metaverse” can stretch.

Zuckerberg said in July that the metaverse will not be created by one company. It will be built by creators and developers making new experiences and digital items that are interoperable and unlock a massively larger creative economy than the one constrained by today’s platforms and their policies.

“Our role in this journey is to accelerate the development of the fundamental technologies, social platforms and creative tools to bring the metaverse to life, and to weave these technologies through our social media apps,” he said.

As the Nigerian housing deficit spirals, birthing unaffordable housing on its way. The federal government, under President Muhammadu Buhari, has repeatedly promised to tackle the challenge by building affordable houses for Nigerians across states of the country.

In November, in a bid to make the promise come true, the federal government launched the National Housing Programme (NHP), as a vehicle to facilitate an affordable housing scheme. It also created a portal for the sale of completed houses under the scheme, to make it easier for individuals to acquire homes without the involvement of middlemen.

The NHP offers three choices to intending home owners; mortgage, rent and outright purchase. These, are believed to make home ownership easier – but there is just a little problem – the cost.

Last week, the Minister for Works, Housing and Urban Development, Babatunde Fashola, told the Senate Committee on Housing that the cost of the houses under the NHP has been varied according to states. He explained that the reason is due to the cost of building and topography – and then he let out the scary part that has contradicted everything affordable housing stands for.

Fashola said the costs of the so-called affordable housing is between “N7.2 million and about N16 million, depending on what a person wants”.

But according to the prices available on the NHP portal, a one-bedroom bungalow has a unified cost of N9,268,751, across every state where it is available. On the other hand, the cost of a two-bedroom bungalow is N12,398,460, while that of a three-bedroom costs 16,491,155.

A one-bedroom flat in a condominium available in southern states goes for N7,222,404, two-bedroom apartment costs N9,148,378, while a three-bedroom unit costs N13,241,074.

While these prices are affordable to many, it is unreachable high for its target audience.

As of last year, the cheapest house under the federal government’s Family Homes Fund, was a one-bedroom house in Delta State, at the cost of N4 million. Although much cheaper than the houses under NHP, it’s considered unaffordable. This is because Nigerians’ earning power falls significantly short of the cost.

Half of urban households (13 million) in Nigeria earn less than N100,000 a month, according to data from the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance. This means, using a mortgage that requires 20% down payment, the average Nigerian can only afford housing units cheaper than N2 million.

This worrisome reality is borne out of Nigeria’s state of penury. The most populated African country is the world’s poverty capital, where more than 40 percent of the population live below the poverty line (less than $2 per day).

With the cost of the houses far above the earning power of Nigerians, many have been asking if the federal government meant what is written on the NHP portal which reads: “It is a programme borne out of the government’s desire to provide affordable housing for its citizenry.”

Although Fashola said that over 7,000 persons have indicated interest in purchasing the apartments, the majority of Nigerians considered the houses unaffordable. Moreover, many believe they can build better houses on their own with the same amounts set as the housing costs.