metaverse
Online party for 387,000 euros flops terribly: EU virtual concert only attracts six visitors
The party is still going on, the mood doesn’t really want to come up.
© Global Gateway / Screenshot: star
The best way to combat disenchantment with politics is to bring the issues to where young people are romping about! Or?
Imagine you are throwing a party and inviting all of Europe’s young people to it – and only six people stray to your concert. It would be nice to call such an event a flop. But that is exactly what is said to have happened to the European Commission.
On November 29, 2022, the EU invited to a joint beach party. Everyone who owns a computer was invited – because the “Global Gateway Gala” took place in virtual space, also known as the metaverse. The problem: probably nobody knew about it, because one of the guests reported that only a handful of other people logged in at the agreed time. Specifically, only five other people are mentioned.
Vince Chadwick summed up his devastating experience on twitter summarized as follows: “I’m here at the ‘Gala’ concert at the €387,000 metaversum of the EU’s foreign aid department (designed to attract non-politically engaged 18-35 year olds – see story below). After initial confused conversations with the approx five other people who have come, I am alone.”
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The concert in question was originally supposed to be the summit of an EU campaign, at which the countless young people, who were now convinced of politics, were supposed to really party again. The EU apparently paid a lot for this lure for the Tiktok and Instagram generation. Chadwick writes in a detailed account “devex“that the platform for the “Global Gateway” program devoured a total of 387,000 euros.
At the request of star if the costs for the project could not be confirmed spontaneously, they wanted to comment on this at a later date. However, a spokeswoman explained why the EU chose this form of multimedia outreach: “We think that the Metaverse is an innovative approach to reach young people. But of course the user interface could have been made more user-friendly and engaging . The platform works better than our static, traditional websites.”
“Devex” reports that the Metaverse project caused a lot of trouble internally. Sources from the responsible department have described the virtual world as “embarrassing” or “digital garbage”, others have only escaped a desperate “Jesuuuuus”.
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Since the concert was obviously not a “tear-out party”, the “Global Gateway” platform can still be visited – the party goes on around the clock. To begin with, you have to create a fictional character that’s kind of like a cross between a paper clip and those long balloons you make dogs out of and stuff like that. Once that is done, you can – provided there is enough space – join the virtual chat room. This can be done without installing software, simply in the browser.
“It’s too early for a final verdict”
In addition to the beach party, you can watch videos of the EU Commission, view art installations and walk on water. Comparable virtual worlds already existed around 20 years ago, but it is questionable whether their implementation was just as expensive.
“Devex” asked those responsible what the internal conclusion was. The answer was short and they said: “Since the program is still running, it is too early to judge.” To the star However, the Commission said: “The first results of the campaign are encouraging with a reach of almost 86 million users on social media.” What is meant by this, however, is the reach across all channels of the campaign, which has been running since October. It is not known what part the virtual playground, which the makers call “Global Gateway Hub”, played in this.
3D Chat is part of a larger initiative that according to EU to help “tackle the most pressing global challenges – from climate change and better health systems to strengthening competitiveness and global supply chains.” As part of this, “Team Europe, ie the EU institutions and the EU Member States” wants “up to EUR 300 billion in investments” in the next five years in the areas of “digital, climate and energy, transport, health, education and mobilize research”. That “Handelsblatt” recently called the “Global Gateway” “Europe’s billion-dollar bluff”.