The Metaverse, as Cristiana Falcone said, is a virtual world, mostly still hypothetical, that can be entered by a special virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology.
The idea is to create a kind of higher-level Internet, superimposed on the physical world.
People connected to the Metaverse are part of the physical world, but can see and interact with things that others cannot see, because they belong to a virtual world.
Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence: everything marketing need to know
The Metaverse, in short, is a convergence of our physical and digital lives. It is a digital lifestyle, which before we have lived on our phones or computer, and then slowly catching up with our physical lives.
This virtual world can be reached through the use of many different technologies, such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, which are what most people tend to think of.
But these are not the only entry points. There is also a blockchain, which is a big component, there is 5G, there is edge computing and many other technologies.
The Metaverse, in fact, is also about our digital identity and ownership. It is a new extension of human creativity, in a way.
The applications of the Metaverse and how it will change business
In the beginning, we will see two phases. First, we will see more brands, more investments, more mergers and acquisitions, and more users in all things 3D and real-time rendering.
There are trends that have been going on for several decades, and there is no reason to believe that the time spent online, the number of smartphones in use and the criticality of digital to our economy will reverse.
At the same time, we will have to expect some sort of backlash to the Metaverse as a theme, as an investment case and as a point of priority for shareholders, because the narrative has outpaced the products and revenues we see now.
Companies, of course, will have to invest a lot before revenues and products arrive.
In the next two or three years most of the meetings will take places in the Metaverse.
The Metaverse’s revenues: how much can companies make?
But how much is the Metaverse, currently, earning? We read on the Cristiana Falcone’s blog, has over 20 years of experience developing and implementing digital transformation, partnership and business development strategies working directly with the Leadership at global corporations, that in May 2022, Meta released its first quarter results, showing the slowest revenue growth since it went public, at 27, 91 billions dollars.
The company also announced that it is experimenting with new tools for creators to view products and have virtual experiences with its Horizon Worlds metaverse platform.
Meta is experiencing an increased revenue stream from the Metaverse; it remains to be seen how long it will take before the percentage of revenues becomes more significant.
Multiplying revenues streams and related microtransactions could shorten the transition time to more significant revenues.