Metaversum GmbH was a Berlin-based

startup company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend ...

behind the 3D virtual world

Twinity ''Twinity'' is a 3D online virtual world. Initially developed by Metaversum GmbH, it is currently held by ExitReality. The game offers its population, called Twinizens, to navigate around virtual (historical) versions of real-world cities, also ...

. The company was founded in July 2006 and was led by CEO Jochen Hummel, CMO Mirko Caspar and CTO Christian von Hardenberg. In 2010, the company had offices in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

and employed around 80 people. In 2012, after problems and declining usage at Twinity, Metaversum was acquired by the internet company ExitReality.

Products and vision

Metaversum was known for developing and operating the 3D

mirror world A mirror world is a Representation_(arts), representation of the real world in digital form. It attempts to map real-world structures in a geographically accurate way. Mirror worlds offer a Utilitarianism, utilitarian software model of real human e ...

Twinity as well as the former urban style sharing

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...

Yumondo. The vision behind the main product Twinity had been to build realistic

replicas A 1:1 replica is an exact copy of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without claiming to be identical. Al ...

of cities in 3D.

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

were launched in Twinity. Twinity members can create personal

avatars Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...

, explore real cities virtually, move into a 3D home, or chat with a friend. Metaversum was financially provided by international

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

ists and Balderton Capital, formerly

Benchmark Capital Benchmark is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco that provides seed money to startups. History The firm's most successful investment was a 1997 investment of $6.7 million in eBay for 22.1% of the company. In 2011, it invested $12 mil ...

Europe, was one of the major

investors An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

behind Metaversum. Metaversum also previously received funding from the Interactive Digital Media Programme Office hosted at the Media Development Authority of Singapore.

References

External links

* {{Germany-company-stub Virtual reality companies Software companies established in 2006 Companies based in Berlin Software companies of Germany German companies established in 2006