For more than 10 years social media has become ingrained into our daily lives, a source of news, entertainment, connection to friends, family and like-minded individuals, both positive and negative. This has been experimented with in VR, with apps like Somnium Space already available and Facebook Horizon arriving later this year. There are more planning to enter this field with new ideas of what a social experience can be, one of which is Uhive.
Having raised $2.3 million USD in funding during 2019 followed by the launch of its mobile beta app at the end of last year, Uhive has big aspirations to create a community that feels more connected to its experience thanks to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
Currently only available for Android devices, Uhive is a social network where users have ‘spaces’ across two worlds, the Civilized World and the Grey World. In the Civilised World they can have multiple spaces across 26 interests. These range from anime, comics, beauty, makeup, sport, through to art and architecture with personalized content sent to users based on the spaces and profiles they interact with. The Grey World operates a little differently. Here users can have infinite spaces, all of which are anonymous. Designed as a free space where users can express their thoughts and ideas without being judged, Uhive states that Grey World is an ‘untraceable space, but be aware that illegal activities are not permitted.’ How this is achieved is unclear.
These ‘spaces’ can also be thought of as property, able to be bought, sold, rented or monetized in various ways. So the more popular a space is, the greater the sale value. This is where the Uhive Token comes into play, a currency powering its own decentralized digital economy. As the platform grows it’ll share 30% of its advertising revenue with users based on their engagement, actively rewarding them for using the social network.
So where does VR fit into all of this? Whilst this is early days for the network it wants to future-proof itself by being compatible with VR technology. Headsets already planned for include PlayStation VR, Oculus, HTC Vive, Gear VR and even Magic Leap.
Currently, Uhive says it has over 50,000 users in its beta with an iOS version planned for later this month and a global launch planned for 2020. As Uhive expands its efforts to include VR, VRFocus will let you know.