About Shurick Agapitov
Shurick Agapitov, founder and CEO of Xsolla, released a book titled *Once Upon Tomorrow: Harnessing the New Opportunities the Metaverse Creates* in March 2024. In interviews promoting the book, Agapitov described it as presenting his vision for a "new internet" that some people call the metaverse, which he characterized as a 3D, video game-like iteration of the internet. He stated that he wrote the book to inspire the next generation of internet entrepreneurs and to encourage readers to find opportunities for themselves in what he called the "3D internet." Agapitov also discussed his earlier venture, X.LA, which he described as a platform intended to facilitate revenue distribution for intellectual property creators and owners, allowing contributors to receive a percentage of sales rather than a one-time payment.
In various interviews from 2022 to 2024, Agapitov elaborated on his definition of the metaverse, stating that it is not necessarily about virtual reality or specific platforms like Roblox or Fortnite, but rather a new internet built with video game technologies. He expressed the view that the metaverse will consist of "meta sites" — 3D spaces developed by video game developers for brands and intellectual properties. Agapitov also commented on the role of large companies, saying he would not be surprised if Facebook (Meta) fails within four to eight years, and noted that the inability to create a currency that governments allow for transactions is a "deal breaker." He emphasized that he believes people in the future will work more for protocols and themselves than for corporations.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Shurick Agapitov's recent appearances.
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Transcript (12 segments)
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Interviewer0:07
Hi readers, my name is Don use and I'm the coordinator for Book Tribs book club program. I'm here today with Shurick Agapitov to talk about his fascinating new book, Once Upon Tomorrow. In it, Shurick unpacks the vague concept of the metaverse, which I just think is so fascinating. Once Upon Tomorrow is one of the selections available in Book Tribs book club program for March, and we are very lucky to snag you for about five minutes of your time. Thank you.
So I'm gonna dive into the questions because I know we only have five minutes. So no spoilers. But what can you share about the book that we wouldn't find on the jacket cover, with some insider information?
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Shurick Agapitov0:50
So this book is presenting my vision for the new internet and opportunity. This new internet presents, I think the reader would find the inspiration how they can find the opportunity for a better life for themselves and some, uh, for better them to enrich their life and learn and earn money with the new internet. Some people call this new internet the metaverse. The book is also highlighting my experience and how the previous internet era helped me to become an internet entrepreneur and earn my success in the web business. And what's the second question?
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Interviewer1:50
The second question I was just about to jump to that. I was gonna say it's almost a natural progression, but why would this book make such a great book club selection? I mean, it seems like there's lots of things to discuss in there, but what messages do you hope readers kind of take away from this?
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Shurick Agapitov2:09
So I wrote this book to inspire the next generation of internet entrepreneurs. It seems to be like the internet is, it's a, um, the giants from the previous generation companies, which in the 2000s was born, and it seems like there's not that many opportunities. What I want to encourage people to read about the next iteration of the internet, 3D internet, and read and think about what they can do in this, and what opportunity we can find for themselves.
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Interviewer2:50
Yeah, fantastic. I'm sure our readers will love to discuss those questions. I'm going to veer off your book for one second and just put you on the spot a bit and say, what's the best book you've read in the last year?
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Shurick Agapitov3:04
It's very hard for me to find the best books. What I want to share is how I read the books. I am a generation when I have a short attention span. I'm the millennial. I'm watching a lot of the reels on Instagrams and I never finish the books. I have the Kindle device and at any given time have access to 80 books, and I read at the same times 0 books. I also find it fascinating for me, like even for a paper book, I use it as a paper internet. So every time when people recommend me a book, I order it. I can afford to order books. I have a lot of books at my homes, and for me it's like a paper internet. I'm literally jumping from the book. It's very rare for me to finish the books, and my mind is all over the place. I was feeling a little bit guilty before that, so I never finished anything. But I just realized in being an executive, it suits me really well because I drop like T-shaped top of the side of the T. So it's allowed me to be a good COO for my company, to have the generalist across multiple disciplines. But I'm not an expert in anything. But I know for a fact the metaverse is coming, and I'm not an expert, but I achieved some success in the previous generation of the internet. I learned everything what I do today from the internet, and that's my form of the return back to the next generation of internet entrepreneurs and this new internet which some people would call the metaverse.
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Interviewer5:13
I think it's fascinating how you relate it back. How you read is very much sort of like how we use the internet in a way, because you sort of read to the point where you learn what you need to learn or get the information you need to get. And if you have time you further read, but if you don't, then you know you've gathered all you can. You can get the gist of something by that. So that makes a lot of sense to me actually.
Yeah, I know you're a busy, very busy man and I only get five minutes with you, so I'm going to let you go. But I do encourage our readers to check this book out. I think it's going to be fascinating and you certainly have a successful career backing this book, so I think that's fantastic.
Congratulations, thank you very much.
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Shurick Agapitov5:56
Thank you for having me. Of course.
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Interviewer5:58
For more information about Shurick's book, please check out the book club page on the booktrib.com website.
