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The adoption of Web3 technologies would greatly benefit from the rollout of 5G mobile data networks across the world, according to Neeraj Roy, Founder, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment.

Speaking at YourStory’s Mumbai edition of TechSparks 2023, Neeraj, in his keynote address titled ‘5G a gateway to the metaverse’, said 5G’s use cases bode well for the proliferation of the metaverse.

“When 4G happened, the single biggest use case was video — whether it was peer-to-peer video or video through OTT, etc. But 5G has much faster speeds. I actually tracked as much as 970 mbps on my phone, while I was going through Bombay traffic. At that speed, elements of the metaverse become a good use case. And that is why I believe that [Web3 is] nothing but an evolution of the internet,” he said.

Opening his address with a recap of the evolution of the internet, Roy said identity, incentive, interaction, and intelligence would be the four core elements driving innovation within the metaverse — something he called the 4 I’s.

Identity encompasses avatars, digital twins, and online personas; incentives include payments, wallets, crypto, and digital currencies; interaction represents immersive content through games, video, music, live, extended reality, and NFTs; and intelligence translates into leveraging AI, ML, Big Data, Zero Knowledge Proof, and more.

Smaller, independent players would help scale the metaverse, but Roy believes that larger stakeholders and “custodians” of Web2 would also play a big role in the move to Web3, with Hungama Digital Media Entertainment itself already stepping into the metaverse. “In my mind, entertainment is the catalyst and that’s why we, as a company, are in businesses that range from music to video to extended reality for 120 million consumers. We’ve seen what access from 3Gto 4G did for us.”

Hungama’s beta metaverse experience HeftyVerse already includes experiences with games, entertainment, and lifestyle, Roy said, adding, “We want to build a better experience for consumers. Once they spend more time on the platform, they engage more — from simply following to potentially having a ringside or frontrow view of the world of entertainment.”