As you probably already know Mark Zuckerberg owner of Meta and Oculus, has announced an initiative to create a metaverse, such as the videogame company Epic Games (creators of Fortnite) has begun collaborating with Sony Group Corporation to create its own.
This has led several companies to ask themselves What is the metaverse? How will it change my life? What opportunities does it offer me for my business? Should I invest in the metaverse? Should I make my own metaverse? Reassure yourself, that in this article we are going to solve all these doubts. Starting with:
What is the metaverse?
It is a collective virtual space, created by the convergence of physical and digital reality, virtually enhanced. In other words, it is device-agnostic and not owned by a single vendor. It is a virtually independent economy enabled by virtual currencies and non-fungible tokens (NTF).
According to Matthew Ball, the metaverse is an "expansive network of worlds and three-dimensional simulations rendered in real time that offers continuity of identities, objects, historicity, currencies and rights virtually, and that can be experienced synchronously by an unlimited number of users individually."
To make it a little easier to understand, the metaverse seeks to become the evolution of the internet.
How will it change my life?
There is a lot of excitement for the metaverse, Gartner expects that by 2026, 25% of people spend at least 1 hour a day on the metaverse. Many companies already proclaim themselves as metaverse companies. This seeks to combine the physical world with the virtual, many of the activities that you perform in your day to day in the physical world would be done in the metaverse. Some examples are:
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Participate in virtual social events
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Buy clothes and accessories for an avatar online
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Use virtual rooms for a more immersive learning experience
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Interact with digital humans
What opportunities does it offer me for my business?
Currently, companies find great opportunities in different products and services that can be exploited in the metaverse. Some examples are:
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Higher quality in education. You won't need your own infrastructure because the metaverse will give you a frame of reference.
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Virtual events will be much more immersive.
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Social media will move to the metaverse.
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Companies can achieve better engagement, collaboration, and connection with their employees through virtually augmented workspaces.
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Retail can expand its reach to a shopping experience that will enable the sale of more complex products.
Should I invest in the metaverse? or Should I make my own metaverse?
The companies that we discussed at the beginning are looking for emerging technology for the development of their own metaverse and there are already several metaverses with limited functions, however, it is recommended not to invest in large quantities in the metaverse, because several of the technologies that are required for this idea to come to the surface are not yet standardized, such as: 5G, virtual reality, augmented reality, among others. That is why we do not recommend that you invest in the metaverse yet because this is an idea that will still take many years to make it a reality.