Hello Sifted reader,

The metaverse: a briefly popular oddity from prehistoric times (2022) that promptly died in the water.

Okay, virtual gaming platform Roblox is still going strong — but everywhere else is looking rather lonely at the moment. Data aggregator DappRadar reveals that there were fewer than 400 “active users” on Decentraland in the last 24 hours — not many for a company that was reportedly valued at over $1bn. Other platforms including The Sandbox have seen user numbers plunge too.

It was likely the moment Mark Zuckerburg of Facebook (sorry, Meta) put his two arms around the “immersive virtual world” that it became categorically uncool; the moment it became the “meh-taverse”.

Undeterred, France wants to make the virtual world happen. The government just closed its call yesterday for public comment on how it should create its metaverse strategy. It wants ideas for what tech should be prioritised for funding to create “an alternative to the virtual immersive universes currently offered by the international giants”.

Will it be metaverse or metamerde? These government-led tech pushes are often a bit rubbish — more likely to churn out smoky steampunk contraptions than cool internet things.

Still, it’s not like the corporates are doing much better. Over the last few months, companies like Meta, Microsoft, Tencent and Disney have decided to scrap their metaverse projects. Meta lost $13.7bn last year on its virtual reality lab. That’s as much money as was invested in German tech last year.

So with everyone making an absolute casserole out of their metaverses, why shouldn’t the French have a go?

We do, at least, have a rough sketch of what the French metaverse could look like. France’s president Emmanuel Macron, hoping to cement his reputation as King Tech, created his own virtual world last year in Minecraft to get some publicity for his re-election.

Visitors to the “Macronverse” were invited to wander around a wobbly looking town square, visit a cafe or kebab shop and gaze up at an enormous billboard with a photo of the president. You could also fall in a virtual river and drown.

So… will the French save the metaverse? Actually I think it’s more likely French people wouldn’t care to visit their own virtual world.

Didn’t we recently see all those French restaurant diners not put off one bit by fiery protests in the streets of Paris ("This is fine... dining")? The metaverse is just another horrorshow to ignore.

— Eanna Kelly

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