How Your Business Can Benefit From The Metaverse

How Your Business Can Benefit From The Metaverse
is.a.bella/Shutterstock
Summary: Right now, the metaverse feels foreign, but it could soon become so normal it's scary.

Make The Metaverse Work For You

Is your enterprise entering the metaverse? If not, maybe you should be. Companies across the globe are gearing up to provide digital tools and services in this space. Throw out your past assumptions, the metaverse has more mojo than a monkey in a musical ensemble. And the metaverse might just be less weird.

What Is The Metaverse Exactly?

You might have heard of "Meta," which is the name of the company that Facebook just rebranded into. Meta is developing one type of metaverse. Other software-focused groups are working on other metaverse environments.

The term "metaverse" refers to an immersive virtual space in which people can interact using technology. The prevailing thought is that people will be able to work, play and communicate within this extraordinary space. The metaverse is currently a work in progress, and consequently, the precise definition of the metaverse is also a work in progress and may shift depending on the speaker or writer.

Business Applications

Businesses both large and small are pursuing creative business opportunities within the metaverse. For the most part, they're interested in targeting millennials and Gen Xers with their products and technologies. Many also view the metaverse as a rich dimension in which to experiment, train employees, develop leadership opportunities, and more.

Examples Of Brands In The Metaverse

The esteemed auction house Sotheby's recently made the move into the metaverse, by instating a digital auction house that can exhibit artworks in a virtual gallery space and sell ever-so-trendy NFTs. Similarly, esteemed accounting firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers and Prager Metis have also entered the metaverse. Prager Metis, which runs 23 offices across the globe, has paid $35,000 for a metaverse-based digital office space [1]. And NVIDIA intends to participate in virtual world development by launching the omniverse, which will be able to connect disparate worlds within the metaverse. If all of this sounds crazy to you, it gets better...

Beyond Brands: Further Applications

What is the corporate advantage to operating in the metaverse? Broadly speaking, the metaverse can be useful in terms of:

  • Offering a space in which to collaborate with employees
    Think virtual meetings where you can feel as though you're "in the room" with colleagues.
  • Offering a space in which to train new employees
    From delivery persons to surgeons, the metaverse can facilitate learning with lower operational overhead and lower risks.
  • Providing an environment in which to run virtual events
    Forget about expos, booths, branded pens, and glaring overhead lighting.
  • Functioning as a fun location in which to launch team building activities
    Virtual gaming, dinners, and discussions can take place within the metaverse, making it easier than ever to create cohesion among globally distributed teams.

The Education Sector

One complaint among remote students is the passivity of the experience. Yet virtual teaching and learning don't have to be passive, and the metaverse—with its Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality components—can be part of the solution [2]. For example, in the context of a history class, the metaverse could teleport students into any historic point in time.

Educational institutions that implement the latest digital innovations stand out from the crowd. With the metaverse, more engaging learning experiences may increase interest in online courses and student enrollment in universities.

The Metaverse's Monetary Value

Some say that as the metaverse becomes mainstream, marketplaces within the metaverse could see hundreds of billions of dollars change hands annually. For instance, a metaverse-based company could sell a new gadget that only functions within the metaverse (e.g., a time-travel machine) and then license that virtual gadget to metaverse-based entities (such as movie producers, or corporate groups for high-end events in the virtual world, etc.)

The metaverse may also enable organizations to accomplish objectives more quickly than they otherwise would, leading to significant economic gains [1]. The terms "enterprise-level metaverse strategy" and "corporate metaverse strategy" are gaining traction.

Conclusion

Some worry that the metaverse will result in a parallel society. The writer of this article thinks that we're a long way off from that for a variety of different reasons, from the technical to the physiological, and including the socio-economic. Nonetheless, the metaverse may be able to present new opportunities for many types of groups and persons. Could the metaverse represent a digital reality that's worth pursuing for your organization?

References:

[1] A guide to the metaverse

[2] 5 ways virtual reality can accelerate success in business and life