What is the Metaverse and How Does it Affect My Business?

We’ve been getting a lot of questions regarding what exactly the metaverse is. The answer is simple, but multifaceted so let’s go over the basics first and then get into how you and your company can leverage the metaverse to better your business.

So what is the metaverse?

In short, it’s basically just an additional layer to the internet but interacted with through new devices like VR, AR, and MR headsets that immerse you much more than a traditional computer, phone, or tablet. You can think of the metaverse like a giant virtual neighborhood. There’s different areas for different purposes, like houses for living, malls for shopping (are there even actual malls anymore? anyway..), schools for learning, and areas of recreation. The only difference between real life and the metaverse is the metaverse isn’t constricted by the laws of physics as it exists on servers. Which is pretty cool.

So is Fortnite the metaverse?

It’s a part of it, definitely. It would slot into the areas of recreation category mentioned above. In fact, many multiplayer online games fall into the same category. Everquest and World of Warcraft were early and very successful examples as well. The only difference now is we have emerging Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed reality technology that is allowing us to occupy those virtual spaces in new, more immersive ways. We’re also seeing companies like Meta (formally Facebook) and a few others trying to unify these spaces into one giant virtual reality. Likely, much how the internet works now, it will be a conglomerate of giant tech players (Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, etc.) creating the platforms in which people and companies create metaverse content, spaces, goods, and services.

Ok great, so how does all this affect my business?

Great question! Much like any new technology platform, it’s an opportunity to engage existing or new audiences in an interesting way to grow your business. Much like how websites became a critical tool for any company to reach its customers, the metaverse will serve a similar purpose but with exciting new benefits and possibilities. As more people continue to shop online, having a virtual store in the metaverse allows customers to interact with virtual products that reflect the real thing much better than an image or video. Same goes for placing virtual goods in your actual home, much like how Ikea and Wayfair offer AR capabilities to see how an actual couch with fit in your house by superimposing a virtual one via your smartphone. The key here is understanding how your product or service can leverage the metaverse successfully.

Will all companies eventually need to be in the metaverse?

Probably not, however it does pose an opportunity to engage with your customers in a new way that could give you a competitive advantage. Let’s say you sell tennis racquets. You can market them in all the traditional ways, but so do all your competitors. Imagine now you create a virtual tennis court where your customers can strap in a VR headset from anywhere in the world and play a few games with other customers. Now imagine they can customize that virtual racquet and after finishing their invigorating virtual tennis match, they can press a button and buy that racquet only to have the real thing show up at their home a few days later. Now imagine that same process with apparel and other equipment. So you’ve just created an entirely new market where your customers have physical collections of your gear, as well as virtual collections and a virtual place to use it when it’s raining or they can’t make it to the courts that day. That customer now has an additional reason to invest in your product, and one that is exciting and endless. At some point you might choose to offer unique “virtual edition only” products which cuts out the cost of manufacturing entirely while opening up new revenue streams. Sounds pretty good, right?

That all sounds well and good, but how exactly can my specific business use the metaverse?

We’re glad you asked, and we’ve covered that to a certain extent on our blog post here.

Thanks for visiting and please feel free to reach out to us! We’re happy to help identify and create amazing metaverse content for your company.

You can learn more about the Metaverse on this helpful blog as well.