How is the Metaverse is Giving Birth to a New Economic Era

The metaverse has been the talk of the town for the past few years. Most individuals view it simply as a game or entertaining immersive experience. And many are completely oblivious to what the metaverse actually is. Simply put, “The metaverse is a shared collective virtual space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the Internet.” The metaverse essentially focuses on creating a separate virtual world for users based on their thinking and augmented reality.

Several business leaders across the globe fail to fully understand the metaverse or believe it has any real-world monetary opportunity to capitalize on. But they are all wrong. In fact, the metaverse presents a promising new arena of economic opportunity, potentially contributing over $3 trillion to global GDP by the year 2031. This is perhaps one of the biggest driving forces behind the billions of dollars being invested into this industry. Now that we’re equipped with a few facts and definitions, lets dive a bit deeper into the economic impact of the metaverse.

What can the metaverse offer businesses?

The metaverse paints a picture comprising a stunningly realistic 3D digital world where one can purchase or sell goods and services, sign and enforce legally acknowledged contracts, recruit and train talent, and even interact with customers and communities pertaining to their business. With the metaverse you could - for example - put on a virtual reality headset and visit a factory across the world. You can see and touch its machines, shake hands with the manager or supervisor, and inspect its operations without ever leaving your desk. It may even be possible to send one digital version of yourself to that factory, while another attends a business meeting. Though these might seem like fun experiences and games, they could result in higher productivity, profitability, and opportunity for any business preparing itself for a metaverse empowered economy.

Many renowned businesses including Balenciaga, Coco-Cola, Adidas, Nike, and Samsung have begun developing their personalized metaverse stores, offices, and experiences in order to:

• Enrich consumer experience.
• Introduce virtual products, exclusively available in the metaverse.
• Collect new and deeper data on customers.
• Market physical products, digital products, and services.
• Support metaverse payments and finance.
• Offer hardware and applications that support metaverse activities.

Expanding to the metaverse is not cheap. These businesses have done their due diligence, and like many others out there have set out to be among the first who make their mark in this virtual reality that will change the way we view commerce, business, and experiences as a whole.

How can you capitalize on this opportunity as an established business or start-up?

Educate yourself and update your understanding: Most companies lack a thorough understanding of the metaverse, its concepts, and applications which are evolving every day. Creating a team to understand the functions and utility of the metaverse and its features, such as cryptocurrencies and decentralized autonomous organizations can help you identify profitable opportunities, and cement your position and relevance in the metaverse.

Ideate and implement a personalized strategy: Actively crafting a fool-proof strategy with the help of an experienced metaverse professional can help you identify gaps to close and talent to hire in order to curate the best possible path to success in this virtual realm. Many companies will benefit from recruiting digital native employees already familiar with integral concepts of the metaverse, and proficient with technical measures such making services extensible, developing plans for security and identity, and publishing application programming interfaces (APIs) to core systems so others can connect seamlessly.

Test the waters and don’t put all your eggs in the metaverse basket: To start with, pick a few opportunities available within the metaverse’s trends today. Identify lower-risk opportunities, some include selling digital versions of physical goods, offering virtual tours of facilities, and launching NFTs to enhance brand awareness and form connections with customers. Companies can also consider buying or leasing digital real estate for sales, advertising and customer support. However, digital real estate is still considered a risky investment as there is no long-term guarantee of its relevance.

Authored By: Anshul Agarwal, Co-founder & Director, XR Central