How does Metaverse Affect Business?

Metaverse is the talk of the internet nowadays. At the first glance, this fascinating concept looks straight out of some science fiction writing. But you need to believe that the Metaverse concept has some serious potential to revolutionize the whole business world as we know it today.

In this informational piece, we will briefly discuss the business potential of the Metaverse, what implications it has for various traditional industries/business models and how exactly the Metaverse will bring the needed change to the business world. 

We will still try to touch on all the prominent changes the Metaverse can bring in today’s business world and how it can affect us & our business workspaces.

How Metaverse can affect Business and Business Models?

Metaverse will have a big effect on the way businesses are built and the way they function. According to an Accenture survey, most of the respondents considered that the Metaverse will certainly have a positive impact on the businesses, with 42% of them claiming Metaverse to be a “breakthrough” or “transformational” change for the business world.

Metaverse could be a Supernova for an Advertising Agency

Metaverse is a continuous and virtual 3-D world, where users can interact with each other, hold meetings, explore the virtual world and even buy all sorts of digital items, which can include memberships, event tickets, digital art, and more. 

Doesn’t it sound somewhat like our current social media platforms, like Facebook and YouTube? Facebook is, for now, a 2d platform, where users can interact with each other, hold video calls (do Facebook lives), explore their respective feeds, and buy stuff from their marketplace. Or paying for memberships of various channels on YouTube, or buying merchandise from them. 

The only difference is that the Metaverse will be much more immersive, especially with the use of virtual reality. This immersive nature is the key selling point of the Metaverse. 

The advertising agencies need to look at the Metaverse as another form of advertising channel similar to social media platforms. As experience and immersive nature are the selling points of Metaverse, the advertisers have to focus on creating unforgettable branded experiences for the users.

Creating and providing such experiences will also be much easier in the Metaverse, as the users are already immersed in the Meta Universe.

Advertising companies can create specialized virtual real estate, where they can market their products, and users can travel via that real estate to get a rich and narrative experience, which can lead to real-world sales. The marketing and creator economy will become a more innovative and enthralling area of this virtual world.

One major benefit of the Metaverse, that the advertising agencies will definitely enjoy, is the data availability. Just imagine a world where everything is connected by the internet as one ‌ building, all the activities of the users can be tracked without hurting any individual’s privacy. If you have ever worked with an advertising or a digital marketing company, you know the importance of the data. 

With Metaverse, these companies will get access to broad and accurate data, letting them make smarter choices with their products and marketing expenditures in the Metaverse.

How will Metaverse Change the Fintech Business?

The massive hype of Metaverse, blockchain, and cryptos leads many companies to closely monitor the Metaverse industry to find any potential opportunities. Many large Fintech startups are already looking to build their own Metaverse, with smaller fintech startups looking up to building solutions for these upcoming Metaverse.

In the Metaverse, the user can buy and sell various digital assets. As supply and demand will be the deciding factor for the price of these assets, like a usual economy, the Metaverse will ‌ possess an economy of its own. These economies are managed by NFT marketplaces and Blockchain technologies. Startups can work to provide various solutions for these economies.

The usage of cryptos, blockchain, NFTs, and DeFi (decentralized exchanges) is the major aspect of the Metaverse world, which will force companies to create new business models. Also, because of the DeFi technologies being used in the Metaverse, the traditional banks will be out of providing any services in this sector, leaving the finances in the Metaverse for Fintech startups.

If such virtual worlds and virtual economies really ‌thrive, it will become an exciting future for both the users and the fintech companies.

Metaverse and Retail Industry

The Metaverse for Retail Industry can be seen as a great business opportunity, but the companies need to change themselves according to the changing customer behavior, to stay relevant in the Metaverse.

In Metaverse, the users can buy and sell various digital assets. The companies can create their own engaging digital assets but have to change selling models.

The consumers in the Metaverse long to become part of something bigger and hence want a more meaningful relationship with the brands they are buying products of. The business needs to create an environment in such a way that the end consumer feels that they are somehow connected to the brand or they are part of the brand and build communities around the brand or the concerned product.

Much like open source software, the users feel connected to the open-source application as the sense of responsibility and ownership is spread across the user and is not retained by the developing company alone. Similarly, companies have to operate, accordingly, in the Metaverse and have to develop new business models/values, unlike the traditional ones.

Event Industry and Metaverse

If you regularly follow the news, you must have heard about a Bangalore couple that arranged their marriage in the Metaverse. Quite fascinating, isn’t it?

As interesting as it may sound to you right now. Such events might become more and more common occurrences with the rise of the Metaverse. Already some companies and celebs are planning shows and live events within the Metaverse. Companies can sell the event tickets as NFTs and even be able to keep a check on outside sales of these event tickets with these methods.

The immersive experience offered by the Metaverse makes the events enjoyable for the fans, even if, in reality, they are just lying in their homes. It drastically reduces the costs of arranging a live event, letting the young artists organize an event of their own.

Some companies are even planning to organize Tech Expo events in the Metaverse, where other companies can rent a virtual booth for the event night, and the attendees can take a look at the both nearly the same as they would have in the physical world, without any location issues.

For corporate, team meetings can also be done virtually through Metaverse, which will let you and your WHM team interact with each other as they would have in the office environment.
The Metaverse effect on event business is already showing its teeth, and the future looks crazy for this industry.

Metaverse and Ed-Tech

What impact will the Metaverse have on the Ed-tech industry? It may not look like the most exciting part to some. This is the industry we are the most excited to see being budding and flourishing in the Metaverse ecosystem.

Online learning, as it is now, does not suit every student, as the students do not get the needed experience and the required physical/social interaction. But everything will change with the use of virtual reality, the students can interact with other students, in somewhat the same way they would have done in the real world. 

At the time of the pandemic, the major issue students faced was the interaction with other students. Studies prove that students learn more via interacting with others. The Metaverse will help in doing just that while solving the location issues. It will be a world where the students and teachers from all around the world can interact. There will be no boundaries whatsoever, all the resources will be there to get and that too in the 3D visual format.

The 3D virtual illustration will help the kids understand the most difficult of topics easily, reducing the burden on the teachers. Also, the parents and teachers can both monitor the student’s performance and guide the student according to that data. 
Due to all the reasons mentioned above, We should await the development of Metaverse for Edtech industries and see what positive developments it would bring.

Metaverse and Entertainment Industry

Metaverse will fundamentally change the way companies used to interact with an average consumer. That is especially true for the entertainment industry.

The big media companies and celebs have already started planning on using the technology of NFTs, in letting their fans become part of their entertainment projects like TV shows and movies, hence providing them with a feeling that they are part of something bigger. 

Or bringing the universe of the movies/TV shows into this Metaverse. Just Imagine a Metaverse with marvel superheroes, it should be fun, what do you think?

The entertainment industries are already using AR and VR technologies to enhance the experience of their consumers. These technologies are also the basis of the Metaverse, so the entertainment industries can easily integrate with the Metaverse ecosystem.

There are just so many possibilities you can imagine, in this heaven-made combination, that we can write about it all day long on it.

Conclusion

How the Metaverse affects the business world is still a topic of debate and speculation. The Metaverse is still in its ideation phase. There is still a lot of speculation on how things will work in a Metaverse or even if the Metaverse will be a feasible choice. All the things we discussed above are predictions and smart guesses which are highly likely to happen in the near future.

The reality can be a little different or something completely out of the box. As the Metaverse stands for Meta (Beyond) and Universe, it could be something beyond our imagination.
But it is important to remain informed about everything happening around the world, which you or your business can take advantage of and hence maintain a lead in the competition. One thing is for sure, the effect of the Metaverse in Business will be visible and huge.