What is the Metaverse?

With Covid-19, lockdowns, extreme isolation, and reduced mobility caused a major shift in our lives from the real world to the the digital world. People became highly dependent on the internet and started diving deep into social media, virtual games, immersive experiences, etc. During this time, the world also saw a steady rise in the usage of virtual reality and augmented reality. With that, the expansion of life into virtual worlds gained extreme intrigue.

The Metaverse fits perfectly with digital lifestyles. A virtual world is created for people to use their 3D avatars to connect, work, play, build communities, buy/sell, or enjoy immersed content. It gives an immersive, persistent and three-dimensional digital experience where people can consume content along with themselves being a part of the content. Brands can leverage these features to connect with their prospective audience and provide them with best user experience.

Major brands like Meta (formerly Facebook), Nike, Nvidia, Coca-Cola, Disney, Hyundai, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and many others have already started planting their business in the Metaverse in various ways. Statista, in one of its articles, estimates that in 2022, the Metaverse market size will rise to 47.48 billion USD and 678.8 billion USD by 2030.

And this raises the question how important is Metaverse for brands? This article will take you through what the Metaverse is and decodes the importance of the Metaverse and what potential it brings for businesses to grow exponentially in the virtual world.

Neil Stevenson first used the term Metaverse in his novel Snow Crash. Metaverse is the virtual place where the characters from the novel take abode from a totalitarian reality. Since the 1990s, there have been advancements in the field of AR, VR, and gaming. Second life was considered as the first representation of the Metaverse as it allowed users to build communities in virtual spaces since 2003. With the creation of VR glasses, the concept of virtual worlds gained colossal momentum.

Facebook (now Meta) acquired Oculus VR in 2014, which captivated the attention of significant businesses and corporates to the virtual world. Meta is one of the tech company that understood the importance of the Metaverse very early. Once again, in late 2021, the Metaverse gained tremendous momentum when Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding of his company and changed his parent company’s name to Meta from Facebook, expanding the scope of their virtual offerings in the Metaverse world in the future.

After this incident, the Metaverse is seen as the latest paradigm shift for the internet and has become one of the household technological concepts. When simply put, a Metaverse is a VR world in a VR universe, where one can build avatars/appearances, communities, alternate realities, or lifestyles. Every brand can create its own virtual world, so there can be any number of Metaverses. In the same way, smaller brands can rent or lease spaces from other corporates’ virtual worlds. The Metaverse can theoretically virtually replicate any activity that is possible in the real world. There can be various user experiences, including education, entertainment, gaming, business, e-commerce, research and social gatherings.

While there are many Metaverses, we have listed the top three Metaverses which are currently making buzz and have acquired a more significant advantage in the field of virtual worlds. These Metaverses are open for selling, renting and sharing their virtual space with other businesses and users.

Although these three Metaverses stand out among others, there are still plenty of other Metaverses that exist today and room for new developments. Other Metaverses such as Genesis World or Treeverse all have their own unique take on NFTs, land, and world building mechanics. As technology service providers, we believe the future lies in the Metaverse and we postulate to help businesses establish their space in virtual worlds. Our team is highly enthusiastic about the above mentioned Metaverses and if you are thinking to invest in them, we can definitely help you to your benefit. If you need any advice or support, we can certainly help and will get back to you immediately.

Though Metaverses mentioned above are of interest to companies for marketing and PR, but Metaverses can also create other user experiences like education, research, training and stimulations, etc.

Pioneer tech company Nvidia believes that Metaverse simulations will help in building sustainable manufacturing and logistics solutions. Microsoft uses its mesh platform to create XR applications that integrate the real world into the immersive world.

Nike, a product-based brand, is also making its way to the virtual world, filing a patent for virtual goods and looking for opportunities to build virtual retail environments to sell those digital products. Nike also recently acquired RTFKT, which creates virtual sneakers for the Metaverse.

Sotheby’s recently established its virtual gallery for curated digital arts in Decentraland. Many virtual showrooms, art collections, fashion shows and other entertainment services are making their way into the Metaverse. Recently, many artists, influencers, and content creators have leveraged NFTS and blockchain to trade their art and content.

So undoubtedly, brands need to get into the digital landscape and use it to their advantage. If you are thinking of taking your business into the virtual world, here’s what you should do right now:

As mentioned above, before investing hugely into the Metaverse, brands need to test and learn in detail about the virtual worlds. So listing down a few ways where brands can leverage the benefits of Metaverse technology, and experience some features of Metaverses with minimum investment to learn and understand it in-depth.