According to McKinsey, the metaverse emerges as the most significant growth opportunity for multiple industries over the next decade, given the breadth of potential applications and uses and the degree of investment from big tech companies, venture capital, companies, and brands. Industries are already implementing metaverse-related initiatives, although most efforts have focused on marketing.
Metaverse Development companies today offer a wealth of opportunities for innovation and growth for varied businesses. McKinsey experts expect the economic value of the metaverse to grow exponentially. The metaverse could generate up to $ 5 trillion by 2030. In 2022, investment in the metaverse more than doubled from 2021 to over $120 billion.
The main factors that explain the success of the metaverse:
- Businesses are ready to spend on digital assets (and are already doing so with NFTs, for example),
- Businesses are open to adopting new technologies.
- Companies are investing heavily, and brands experimenting with the metaverse report positive consumer feedback.
But who are the builders of this new ecosystem? How can you participate in the development of this new technological trend? Finally, which companies are involved that will capture the value of this new market? We take stock of the Top 10 opportunities of metaverse for businesses in this article.
Opportunities businesses can explore in the metaverse
1. Tourism
Ultimately, the actual value of Metaverse tourism offerings during a booking process is their ability to increase overall booking volumes. At first, customers can be inspired by virtual and augmented reality travel technology. However, at the same time, the experience of booking hotels, restaurant tables, and other similar services becomes much more pleasant, informative, and valuable as a tool to influence purchasing decisions.
For example, hotels can use VR tours or digital avatars to allow guests to walk around a realistic recreation of their property and get a feel for room sizes and amenities. Travel agents, meanwhile, can use VR tours to give customers practical experiences of a place they want to go.
On the tourism side, the initiatives are on the upswing. In May 2022, the seaside resort of Benidorm in Spain was innovated by launching BenidormLand, its metaverse accessible via Steam, allowing a truer-than-life immersion in the city. Other foreign towns, such as Seoul and Tokyo, have announced that they will soon get started. Cannes announced in April 2022 that it had invested in the metaverse with the creation of NFTs around its emblematic places, such as the Croisette, the Palais des Festivals, and the Suquet.
2. Marketing
Metaverse marketing engages consumers to use the metaverse as a platform. It provides an interactive and immersive environment that enables new levels of customer engagement for brands.
The metaverse creates a virtual environment where users can connect and communicate in a more engaging way than a traditional 2D website page. It can be used for marketing to build relationships with customers and promote brands or products.
The immersive and interactive experience that Metaverse Marketing offers customers sets it apart from traditional marketing strategies.
Undoubtedly, the metaverse and its associated technologies will play a major role in marketing. Going forward, the metaverse will become an effective tool for customers to connect with their favourite brands just as they do in the physical world. It allows businesses to engage deeply with consumers and build loyalty.
3. Social Media
Social media is another frontier that provides fertile ground for many business opportunities in the metaverse. Metaverse technology can be an ideal foundation for new social media platforms offering immersive experiences.
Users could interact with other participants in metaverse social media platforms as digital avatars in various virtual spaces. Near-real-life social experiences are probably the next stage in the evolution of social media. For example, imagine discussing the latest music trends in a virtual space with your friends in a social metaverse as digital avatars. That’s a promising advantage over traditional video and voice communication.
4. Immersive Shopping Experiences
The retail sector is the next big playground for exploring metaverse-related business opportunities. Companies in the retail industry can capitalize on the opportunity for immersive shopping experiences through the metaverse.
Many retail brands, such as Zara, Balenciaga, Nike, and Louis Vuitton, have already started exploring the metaverse. In the metaverse, you can wear clothes and accessories from the fashion store on your digital avatar. Therefore, you can also find out how a particular dress or jeans fits you.
Furthermore, the combination of the metaverse and business opportunities in the retail sector also provides opportunities to launch new and complex products. For example, retailers could launch new collections and let customers try them virtually. Furthermore, through the metaverse’s immersive shopping experiences, retailers can get timely and helpful feedback to improve products.
5. Brands allow their customers to acquire virtual possessions
Many brands have already entered the digital asset race, often purchasing NFTs. And for a good reason, the avatar that represents us through these virtual spaces can be personalized. As surprising as it may seem, many people give time and importance to choosing clothes for the latter. They even go so far as to buy them a car or apartment! Daily habits are thus projected into the digital world. And, just like physical objects, virtual possession allows you to express your personality and social status.
It is a real source of income for these companies. For example, in 2021, RTFKT, in collaboration with artist FEWOCiOUS, generated $ 3.1 million by selling 600 pairs of virtual sneakers in just 7 minutes!
6. Metaverse recruitment opportunity
Recruitment in the metaverse is still in its infancy, mainly due to the tool’s newness and uncertainty about its future. Indeed, given the shortage of IT profiles, companies must redouble their efforts to appear as innovative as possible. Launching into the metaverse is part of this strategy by giving an innovative image. Therefore, these recruitment events in the metaverse will still be reserved for technical profiles.
Finally, the efficiency of the metaverse and its cost are sometimes only a marketing argument aimed at attracting new talents to complete the development teams. However, the metaverse will one day apply more broadly to recruitment. We will then seek to use it to increase efficiency and optimize recruitment. But this phase is still far away. This will require the metaverse to be adopted beyond the anecdotal stage.
7. Immersive educational experiences
Reinventing the learner experience with immersive training is imagined by remaining human-centered while not losing sight of the educational objectives. In addition, the necessary work of digital acculturation and change management must be considered to support all employees, including teachers.
However, it is human to treat the metaverse with scepticism; there will be technical obstacles and perhaps even mental pitfalls compared to the idyllic vision we can have today of the future unique metaverse. However, higher education must embrace the educational aspect of the metaverse and thus create quality educational content based on immersive learning experiences that are always at the service of student success.
8. Virtual events
The metaverse offers critical support to enable better-integrated solutions to virtual events. With the metaverse’s immersive experiences, virtual event organizers can host events where attendees feel physically present. Fortnite is one of the most notable examples illustrating the potential for business opportunities in the metaverse with virtual events.
The first advantage of the metaverse for business is accessibility in virtual events. For example, anyone who buys a virtual concert ticket can attend without physical or geographic limitations. The metaverse also offers better prospects for collecting audience data and evaluating their behaviour.
9. Real Estate
For some time now, real estate has been entering the metaverse. For example, Sandbox, one of the worlds that make up the metaverse, offers 166,464 plots for purchase, each measuring 96x96m. To acquire it, you will have to pay the equivalent of three ethers, or $3,408 (as of December 20, 2022). A substantial sum therefore, for a plot on which everything remains to be built.
The company Every realm, a specialist in investment in the metaverse, and in particular real estate investment, has created more than 100 paradise islands with luxury villas in the metaverse. Some are displayed at more than $100,000. And just like in the real world, in the metaverse some neighbourhoods are worth more than others. Recently, a user spent $450,000 to buy a house next to Snoop Dog’s on Sandbox.
Nevertheless, with rising mortgage rates and inflation, the real estate market is becoming more and more fluid and it is not impossible that in the near future, some investors will choose to turn to virtual markets. Will individuals be inclined to invest their savings in a virtual apartment? Surely if companies develop solutions allowing them to invest easily. According to MetaMetric Solutions, real estate on the metaverse already represented $501 million at the end of 2021, and should reach $800 billion by 2024.
10. Metaverse Fashion
Gucci has understood this well by offering a virtual store with a collection of luxury clothing and accessories to dress the avatars of its users. In addition, the brand goes even further by providing virtual locations where users can collect and store limited-edition virtual items available exclusively on the metaverse. Brands like Nike, and Ralph Lauren have created digital fashion collections that have led them to be among the first to achieve this, each piece transformed into an NFT ready to be acquired by users across the metaverse.
Metaverse fashion is a way to express brand identity through digital content. It’s about creating a story for each brand that will engage and entertain your online audience. It’s about finding the perfect balance between storytelling, taking advantage of opportunities to make them more interactive, and ensuring it has an impact. Augmented reality has found its free world in the metaverse.
Summing Up
Companies can exploit this technology with new marketing practices and discover how to improve customer proximity further. The opportunities provided by metaverse for businesses are endless. Just explore the platform to observe the needs that arise in daily development, and you will find the best options for your business. If this has not interested you yet, it’s time to think about it.
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