What is the Metaverse and what does it mean for the future?

The Metaverse is a Virtual Reality (VR) space where users can interact with other users within a computer-generated environment. The metaverse has many applications like healthcare, real estate, education, military, gaming, etc. The metaverse is increasingly being used by individuals, mostly for work, art, or investments.

According to a recent poll conducted by Metaverse expert Joseph Johnson, 52% of worldwide internet users use the metaverse for work-related activities, 48% for art and live entertainment, 44% for money investment, 40% for education, 32% for online dating and socialising, and 29% for gaming.

Market Projections

The global metaverse market was estimated at USD 124,04 billion in 2020. It is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of at least 39.4% from 2022 to 2030. Major factors expected to drive the revenue growth include a growing focus on integrating digital and physical worlds using the Internet, increasing the momentum and popularity of Mixed Reality (MR),

Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and the outbreak of COVID-19, as well as the situation’s subsequent developments and outcomes.

The Metaverse allows its users to meet others by negating physical distances. It provides a platform with an immersive experience for the user allowing improved online social interactions far beyond regular social media. New business and financial growth opportunities are available in the metaverse. It can improve online learning, education, gaming, and the use of cryptocurrencies, NFTs and the working environment in various ways, which in turn is seeing a trend in overall market growth.

Market Growth

Market Drivers (Increasing Adoption of New Technologies, Growing Demand for Metaverse Users to Purchase Digital Assets through Cryptocurrency).

The rising adoption of new technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI), mixed reality (MR), and blockchain, in the metaverse industry helps foster its market growth. Companies like Facebook, Roblox, Fortnite, NVidia, Microsoft, epic, USM, Google, RTFKT Akira, and Oculus have incorporated metaverse extended reality (XR) systems and other new technologies or are in the process of incorporating them. According to a study, LG Group filed for 688 extended reality patents across 455 patent families, Sony filed for 87 XR patents across 78 patent families, while Qualcomm Incorporated filed for 80 patents across 28 patent families for the metaverse.

The metaverse uses cryptocurrency as its mode of transaction. Cryptocurrency is used to pay for everything in the metaverse, from non-fungible tokens (NFT) to avatar shoes. According to a study, 53% of companies invest in cryptocurrencies, while 44% invest in NFTs. According to a CNBC survey, 1 in 10 people invest in cryptocurrencies, which are used mostly in trading different commodities such as NFTs. As cryptocurrency exchanges are accessible worldwide, investors can use this currency to directly sell to purchasers on the metaverse, positively changing the metaverse market trends.

Market Opportunities

There’s a constant increase of opportunities for Business-to-Business (B2B), and Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Career Opportunities in the Metaverse. Access to the metaverse’s marketplace for consumers is rapidly increasing in frontier and emerging economies. In the metaverse, the differences between B2C and B2B marketing are not visible that companies can leverage to grow their consumer bases while avoiding corporate trends. For example, a Gucci bag was worth more in the metaverse than in real life when it was resold for 350,000 Robux or USD$ 4115 in the Roblox metaverse. The same bag’s price in real life is approximately USD 3400. The expansion of opportunities can help boost the metaverse market size.

The career opportunities in the metaverse are also growing. More jobs are being created due to the increasing demands for different products and services in the metaverse, which could ultimately increase market growth. According to recent surveys (Report ID: 29932055) about 10,000 jobs across different sectors like research, planning, development, safety, world-building, storytelling, ad-blocking, and cybersecurity are expected to be created soon in the metaverse.

North America is the largest metaverse market, with a revenue share of over 70 % in 2021. The North American region’s market share is high due to the customers and users in North America that adopt new and complex technology. Americans are increasingly using VR, MR, AR, and other new technology to access and experience the metaverse in the most immersive ways.

Americans also enjoy their experience in the metaverse, which compels them to invest in devices that would further enhance their experience in the metaverse. The increased demand for devices that enhance their experience fosters market growth. According to a recent study, 37% of Americans believe life in the metaverse would be more fun than real life, 38% believe the metaverse makes their life better, 47% use it to socialise efficiently, and 48% do not feel overwhelmed about the multiverse, 40% understand the purpose of the metaverse, and 57% believe that the metaverse will be as popular as traditional social media platforms.

Due to many start-ups and organisations, the Asia-Pacific region could be the fastest-growing metaverse market. The metaverse market in India, for example, is seeing tremendous growth due to a lot of start-ups and organisations playing in the metaverse being present. The metaverse consumer base is also growing in Asia-Pacific due to the increased adoption of technology that would enhance their experience in the metaverse, which increases the demand for these devices and the market growth. According to China’s Social Sciences Academic Press and NetEase, 31.8% of people use the QQ metaverse platform seven days a week, while another study suggests that the South Korean metaverse platform Zepeto has about 2 million active Asian users a day.

Global Metaverse Market – Competitive Landscape Analysis

The investments in Research & Development and other advanced technologies such as AI, cloud, and machine learning (ML) and strategic decisions such as mergers & acquisitions enable major competitors to acquire a significant share in the metaverse market. The key competitors in this market are:

• 1) Tencent Holdings Ltd.
• 2) Meta, Inc.
• 3) Alphabet, Inc.
• 4) Nvidia Corporation
• 5) Roblox Corporation
• 6) Microsoft Corporation
• 7) Globant
• 8) Queppelin
• 9) Alibaba Cloud
• 10) Netease, Inc.

The competitive landscape among the companies who want to have a key role in the development of the Metaverse will open a market need for new specialised jobs.

1. Metaverse Research Scientist

AR and VR research scientists are already a staple of top universities and major tech companies. But as the Metaverse (or whatever you want to call the seamless intertwining of the physical and digital world) slowly becomes a widely accepted idea, we’re going to need a lot more brainpower.

The job of a Metaverse Research Scientist won’t simply entail developing a few basic digital models of the real world within which corporations will be able to bring customers and partners. This already exists. What the future holds is bigger. Much bigger. Metaverse Research Scientists will need to build is something akin to the theory of everything,

2. Metaverse Planner

Ideas are cheap but execution can be expensive. Once we have a working Metaverse, the ability to plan and implement all matters of functionalities into a fully virtual world will be absolutely key to most companies. As will selecting the right things to do with(in) this expanding digital world.

This is where the Metaverse Planner comes in. As CEOs set a vision and strategy for the creation and growth of their business’ metaverse revenues, the Planner will need to drive a strategic portfolio of opportunities from proof-of-concept to pilot to deployment. That means identifying market opportunities, building business cases, influencing engineering roadmaps, and developing key metrics.

3. Ecosystem Developer

An entire ecosystem will need to be built around the Metaverse. Sensors, CPUs, GPUs, KYC processes, data-lakes, green electricity production, edge computing, laws, regulations… the world is complex, and further digitalising it (more than it already is) will be no easy task. We can compare that difficulty to that currently faced by the car industry transitioning to electric vehicles.

The Ecosystem Developer would be in charge of coordinating partners and governments to ensure that the various functionalities created are possible on a large scale. They will push for governmental investments in infrastructure and animate large communities of actors. One key thing they will need to concentrate on is interoperability, to ensure that a Metaverse Customer is able to use their virtual items across different experiences.

4. Metaverse Safety Manager

Privacy. In-world ID verification. Safe head-gear. Adequate sensors, etc. We’ll need people who can provide guidance and oversight for all this during the design, validation, and mass production stages, making sure our digital world is safe and meets or exceeds applicable regulatory safety requirements. All without sacrificing cutting-edge functionality or design — or cutting into revenues — obviously. That person will be the Metaverse Safety Manager.

5. Metaverse Hardware Builder

The Metaverse will not (only) be built on code. It will (also) be built on sensors, cameras, and headsets. Sensors that make you feel touched if someone squeezes your arm online. Cameras that see if you’re in a horrid mood so that the AI doesn’t bother you too much. Headsets that feel the sun around you and project a summer day in the digital world for added realism. And that’s not even getting into the boring stuff, such as inertial measurement units, visual light cameras, and depth cameras to help with tracking, mapping, and localisation. All this hardware needed to create a fully digital world that intertwines with the physical world is expensive and complex. A Metaverse Hardware Builder will need to assemble it and adapt it as the Metaverse becomes more complex.

6. Metaverse Storyteller

As the experience economy and the concept of gamification continues to gather ground, it is only logical that people ask for their extended reality experience to have great storylines one might learn grand lessons from. Consumers want to laugh, want to cry, want to learn. This is where the Metaverse Storyteller comes in.

This person will be in charge of designing immersive quests for the users to explore the metaverse, training scenarios for the military, and hard-to-spot marketing opportunities in the form of corporate narratives.

7. World Builder

Once companies have built the architecture, the hardware, and the storylines, they will still need to create entire worlds. And the task won’t be coding them, but actually imagining them.

This role will require many of the same skills asked of video-game designers, albeit with a potentially entirely different set of rules. World Builders will need to be forward-thinking and facing, as much of what they will dream of won’t yet exist in the form of a technology or a product solution.

8. Metaverse Cyber-Security

The metaverse is the perfect target for cyber-attacks and fraud: hacked avatars, NFT theft, biometric/physiological data leaks, hacked headsets, etc… the possibilities for things to go wrong are very nearly countless. This is why the market will need Metaverse Cyber-Security Experts.

People who will block attacks in real-time, and will ensure that laws and protocols are reconsidered and amended, and perhaps even invented, to include all the risks of the Metaverse.

Bottom Line

The metaverse is already here even though it is still under development, and it is too soon to identify the top metaverse applications in a specific order or ranking. As of now, metaverse technologies are powering new waves of digital transformation across different industries.

Technologies like VR, AR, and XR are already transforming conventional perspectives on industry best practices and business models. Also, many existing applications of the metaverse, such as virtual real estate tours, medical applications and retail opportunities showcase the potential for growth of the metaverse in the very near future.

Start learning more about the metaverse now and how it can change the world to be ready for the future.

These are 3 books that may help you get a better grasp of what the Metaverse is and how it will revolutionize the world as we know it

Sources:

1· https://consoliads.com/what-is-the-metaverse-and-what-to-expect-from-it/
2· https://www.statista.com/statistics/1288870/reasons-joining-metaverse/
3· https://www.statista.com/topics/9490/metaverse-and-video-gaming/
4· https://www.statista.com/study/109191/metaverse-how-it-s-shaping-up/
5· Metaverse Market Research Report by industry and region. February 2022. ID: MRFR/ICT/9260-CR
6· https://www.statista.com/statistics/1287403/china-most-in-demand-applications-of-metaverse-2021/
7· https://www.statista.com/statistics/1302215/metaverse-project-investment-budget-businesses/
8· https://influencermarketinghub.com/metaverse-stats/
9· Metaverse Market Size and Industry Report By Components (Hardware, Software, Services), By Platform (Desktop, Mobile, Headsets), By Technology, Metaverse in Blockchain, Metaverse in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), Metaverse in Mixed Reality (MR), Metaverse in Internet of Things (IoT), Others), By Offering, By Application, By End-Use, By Geography, Segment revenue estimation, Forecast: 2020-2030. Report ID: 29932055
10· https://101blockchains.com/top-metaverse-applications/
11· https://www.starterstory.com/best-metaverse-books