New business in the metaverse – Doing Business in the Metaverse: Opportunity or Threat?

Take away:

· Virtual reality (VR) offers users new ways to interact with brands and their products.
· Users can access e-commerce from anywhere in the world, eliminating geographical barriers.
· As part of the metaverse, each user will have a digital wallet, which simplifies purchasing.
· Users will be able to move freely throughout the metaverse, which will allow them to join groups and attend (and pay for) events.
· Through 360-degree videos, users will engage in a new storytelling experience

What is Metaverse?

We are approaching the transition to the Metaverse with the same enthusiasm as we are moving from desktop to mobile devices. This alone gave rise to many new businesses and boosted sales in many sectors.

The mobile internet has shown that economic opportunities for everyone improve if we create a level playing field. But what exactly is meta?

Meta is a mixture of multiple elements of technology, including virtual reality, augmented reality, and video where users interact within a digital universe. Supporters of the metaverse imagine the users going to work, play and socialize within the virtual world. Concerts, conferences, and any other social gathering may be held in the future in the metaverse.
While the technology for the metaverse is still being developed and ripe, businesses are gearing up for a radical transformation.

Some institutions predict an increase of revenues from virtual gaming worlds from $180 billion in 2020 to $400 billion by 2025. This alone shows how attractive this metaverse could be for businesses and this enormous opportunity comes from a variety of sources, from advertising in the metaverse to e-commerce, virtual events, and new hardware or emerging software with new user interactions.
The next few years will be crucial for small and large businesses as well as investors as the market implications of the metaverse become clearer. For those who want an early start, it's a bit tricky since there is no real orientation to follow. It's up to the business to create new content in the metaverse and attach more value and quality to give the users more experience and access to the metaverse universe.

What is Metaverse for Businesses?

The metaverse is a 3D virtual universe where users can come together via avatars that resemble or they can create them as they please. They can control the avatar and mimic their movements so that they can interact with each other and the surroundings, which also replicates the physical world with select modifications.

The metaverse is the evolution of the internet and social media as we know but with a few upgrades and differences for certain business models:
· For some businesses, the metaverse will be another channel for their PR and marketing. New strategies for marketing, sales, and CX must evolve to include virtual reality and will need to be developed to create new needs for users and new meaningful experiences for them in the metaverse universe.

· Another type of companies would be natively emerging in the metaverse. New companies will be born in the metaverse that didn't exist before. These native metaverse companies still don’t exist and will come and rise with metaverse.

The new opportunities within the metaverse universe

The metaverse is seen as the successor of the internet as we know it. Since Asia is stretching the internet and internet-related business ideas, there is no doubt that Asia will also be at the front of the pack in embracing the opportunities it offers in the metaverse universe. For businesses all around the world, the opportunities that rely upon the metaverse will be the biggest we’ve seen since the creation of the internet.

The use of VR/AR to train workers on machine operation and safety protocols is gaining traction in industries with heavy machinery or hazardous working conditions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these technologies have been used to provide additional expertise to intensive care units without risk of COVID-19 infection. One area where VR/AR could be used more is in the office, or rather out of it. First-round interviews can be conducted in automated digital formats, a method that can streamline the hiring process while increasing the ability to interview a greater number of candidates.

The Metaverse will make many experiences affordable with a wide range of experiences and products, anyone with access to the internet can experience faraway places or new products. Like the internet has given access to vast libraries of knowledge and entertainment to everyone around the world, the Metaverse may allow most of humanity to virtually travel the world and interact in high quality with family members stuck in distant countries.

Goods and services will be more accessible and cheaper, which would not only make people wealthier but also make their labor more productive. Many new jobs will be formed to meet the demand in the metaverse. Jobs will be available not only locally but also nationally or even globally because remote work will be much easier and powerful than we currently experienced with Zoom and Slack. Innovations will create new job markets that we haven’t seen yet, as every large technological transition has throughout history.

Metaverse will have more to offer than mere entertainment value. It can have educational value by allowing one to experience and practice skills in the metaverse before being applied in the real world. Highly realistic simulations in the metaverse can help us train dangerous skills like surgeries before being applied to real patients.

But are there any risks of doing business in the metaverse universe? Let’s have a look at the downside of doing business in the metaverse.

Risks of Doing Business in the Metaverse

Doing business in the metaverse comes with certain risks. Offering new business segments or investing in additional channels needs huge investment sums. Especially since metaverse is still being developed and the business ideas are still being developed. The investment capital is therefore at risk but on the other side of the risk are huge business opportunities. The blue ocean strategy, being the first one offering real benefits and usage for users, could generate a huge advantage against competitors.

Developing new channels and technology is a risk especially since specialists predict that metaverse will take some years to be mainstream.

The unpredictable user demand that only uses and supports 2D apps or desktop-based applications needs to get used to using VR tools. However, VR headset technology is not widely used compared to the total number of social media users. Different users may react differently to VR, depending on their personal preferences and health conditions. Therefore, this business may not experience as many users as predicted. Businesses could struggle to achieve universal reach or the desired number of users.

Another main concern for companies developing their new business models is the potential shifting value of crypto. All business transactions that will take place in the metaverse will leverage blockchain, either through cryptocurrency or non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Since crypto value is known to vary widely from day to day, which could cause a degree of economic instability in the metaverse business and revenue. Also, major investments through NFTs may not be as reliable as real-world trades. For example, the buyer of an NFT may not be able to legally edit the work, despite having paid for it. This could discourage certain customer types that want to have more freedom of usage of their new product.

Another issue relies on the portability to the physical world that applies the risk to metaverse native businesses. They might find themselves restricted to a small fraction of the global population, to VR infrastructure and other internet or technology-related issues.

What's lies ahead for us?

But what are, on a long-term basis, the creative possibilities for businesses? Along with creating a virtual space in the metaverse where customers can experience the brand and products as if they were in a physical store, they might design limited-edition digital merchandise to promote an exciting new physical line, letting customers show their love for the brand in the virtual world. But this trend needs time to develop and since crypto never stands still and is experiencing breathtaking development, this will also apply to the metaverse universe. So, only time can tell how this will develop, but the gate.io research team will always follow this trend for you and keep you UpToDate.

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Author: article_bot
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