The European Commission’s foreign aid department has defended a virtual party it hosted last month, telling Devex that around 300 visitors attended the event, which began an hour earlier than the publicly advertised time.
The online concert was held in what a commission spokesperson described as “a dedicated metaverse”, designed to introduce nonpolitically engaged 18-to-35-year-olds to the European Union executive’s work around the world.
Some observers questioned the use of the term “metaverse” to describe the platform, which does not require a virtual reality headset — you move your character around like in a videogame with your computer mouse and keyboard, or phone touchscreen — and is not directly associated with the more immersive metaverse championed by Facebook — now Meta — chief Mark Zuckerberg.
Launched in mid-October, the platform, which allows users to explore a surrealist tropical island as a paperclip-esque avatar, set EU taxpayers back €387,000 ($408,102), including development, production, and running costs. It is part of a broader communications campaign to promote the commission’s Global Gateway investment strategy outside the EU. The communication contract was won by mc Group, who subcontracted Journee, a company specialized in building digital spaces, to create the online platform.
A Nov. 29 online “gala” was the last of three virtual events in the metaverse and was promoted by the commission as “one last chance to celebrate together … and enjoy the wonders of this digital space.”
When Devex logged in at the publicly advertised time of 9 p.m. Central European Time, however, we encountered only around half a dozen users. Our tweet of a video showing the empty dance floor was picked up by media outlets around the world and has been viewed more than 240,000 times.
But the commission told Devex this week that the event notched an audience of around 300 between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., as confirmed to the commission by the site’s developers, Journee.
The commission told Devex that the event in fact started at 8 p.m. That’s despite the commission’s own website saying 9 p.m. and at least one billboard in the metaverse itself promoting the event as beginning at 8:30 p.m.
Attendees were mostly reached through posts with the correct time — 8 p.m. — targeting the social media feeds of the desired demographic, the commission told Devex while acknowledging that “indeed, the webpage should have been clearer and said 8 p.m.”
Asked how much money had been spent promoting the metaverse, the commission wrote back that “there is no dedicated paid media budget for this platform.”
There were 128,000 visits to the metaverse between Oct. 10 and Nov. 30, and 5,450 visits on Nov. 29 — compared to the daily average of 2,510. Some 93.8 million people had seen at least one piece of campaign material on social media during the same period.
The commission spokesperson said those numbers were achieved “primarily on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram through content sent directly — in the appropriate languages — to the feeds of individuals whose profiles correspond to the target demographic.”
Dance like no one is watching
According to the commission, the run of the show on Nov. 29 included:
“Start: 8:00 PM – Warm up – DJ Music (@Primărie)
8:25 PM – Welcome speech - Brooke Bailey
8:30 PM - Anthem Video Screening
9:00 PM – Explore the metaverse”
“With people being able to move around freely, it would be difficult that a single visitor is able to see the total number of visitors in all the different spaces,” the spokesperson told Devex.
Asked what attendees on Nov. 29 did that was different from the 24-hour beach party that is playing on a loop in the metaverse each day, the spokesperson replied: “It was very similar but the event provided a focal point, including a live DJ.”
Brooke Bailey is a half-Belgian, half-Ghanaian DJ who introduced the campaign hero stories and opened the event.
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The “Anthem Video Screening” refers to a 30-second clip introducing the stories of four young people from Asia, Latin America, and Africa who benefited from EU programs.
Two people commented on Journee’s LinkedIn post promoting the gala that they enjoyed the event, with one writing “Great to see everyone dancing on this fine Tuesday afternoon!” Neither user immediately replied to a request for comment.
‘Not user-friendly and appealing enough’
In the face of the mounting criticism online, the commission told The Daily Telegraph that the metaverse experience was “not meeting our expectations”.
“In its current state, its user interface is not user-friendly and appealing enough,” the spokesperson told the Telegraph. “It is still performing better than our static, traditional websites and of course, we will learn from the shortcomings."
Asked by Devex to clarify whether the commission was pleased with the initiative or not, the commission spokesperson responded: “We are not unhappy with the visitor numbers, but in our view, the user interface indeed leaves room for improvement. This will be part of the evaluation.”
The full campaign is running in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Romania, Estonia, and Denmark, mainly on social media but also including billboards, traditional posters, and interactive art installations.
As for the metaverse, since the media interest sparked by the gala, there have regularly been lengthy queues to access the platform.
“Operating costs of the interactive website are indeed determined by the bandwidth usage required to cater for a given number of visitors,” the commission told Devex. “The theoretical capacity of the site is 400,000 over the period of the campaign …”
So how does this end?
“The campaign website will be open until December 15,” the commission spokesperson wrote. “The infrastructure can be re-used in the future without incurring further development costs.”
Neither mc Group nor Journee responded to requests for comment.
About the author
Vince Chadwickvchadw
Vince Chadwick is a contributing reporter at Devex. A law graduate from Melbourne, Australia, he was social affairs reporter for The Age newspaper, before covering breaking news, the arts, and public policy across Europe, including as a reporter and editor at POLITICO Europe. He was long-listed for International Journalist of the Year at the 2023 One World Media Awards.
