Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
- Alexis Ohanian said he's bullish on the metaverse because of the rise of crypto and Web 3, human engagement with virtual and augmented reality, and the need for online connections.
- Facebook's move to rename itself Meta is a "masterstroke in diversion and distraction," he said.
- He suggested there is potential for a funding boom in metaverse-related start-ups.
Alexis Ohanian, who co-founded Reddit in 2005, said the rise of cryptocurrencies and the third generation of the internet are just a few reasons he's bullish on the idea of the metaverse.
"We're talking about sort of all of us being able to go online and occupy digital spaces much the same way we do physical today," he said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Friday.
Ohanian said people are engaged with the internet today via text- and image-based interaction with their phones or computers. But he feels engagement via VR (virtual reality) goggles or AR (augmented reality) will give rise to a whole new phenomenon.
"I spent 15 years trying to convince people leading Reddit that people would care about online connection just as much or more than offline connection. But now I think everyone sort of takes it for granted – we fall in love online, we make some of our best friends online, we ape into stocks together online through anonymous communities," he said.
"And I think that that dynamic, combined with broadband ubiquity, and now the rise of web 3 and crypto really working gives people a sense of ownership in this new world, so that the assets you buy in the metaverse are just as real as the assets you buy and own in the offline world. "
The idea of a "metaverse," or a virtual universe, has been used in the gaming and science fiction realms for a while. It refers to a virtual space where humans, living in the physical world, can carry out activities using virtual and augmented reality-powered avatars while existing in both places.
Ohanian said Facebook's decision to rebrand itself to Meta was "a masterstroke in diversion and distraction."
CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that "the next platform and medium will be even more immersive, an embodied internet where you are in the experience, not just looking at it."
"I think they should not be underestimated," Ohanian said. "And right now, there is this amazing bottom-up movement to create the metaverse using what's happening in the crypto community. Getting a lot of people building what I think is what most of us hope will become a much more organic type of world, rather than a sort of top-down Facebook-imposed one."
The Reddit co-founder also suggested there is potential for a funding boom in metaverse-related start-ups.
"With the amount of money that's flowing into venture right now, startups that can get competitive on the VR front, they can get the funding. But the bigger things here are going to be more foundational software," he said, touching on Facebook's advantage in the space with its virtual-reality headset formerly known as Oculus.
"That's the stuff that's going to get built in the next five years. It's actually going to make it worth it for you to spend time, because right now the competition is watching Netflix, playing Fornite, scrolling through your phone. We're not going to all wake up in the metaverse tomorrow."