The Metaverse is collapsing the physical and virtual worlds to create a paradigm shift in interactions between customers, suppliers, partners, employers and employees. It is changing existing business models to buy, sell, spend, learn, collaborate and create. Some brands, like Nike, Starbucks and P&G, already have a presence in the Metaverse with campuses, fan zones and collaboration. And while early adoption is primarily in media, entertainment, gaming, retail, consumer and industrial manufacturing sectors, over time, it will be a disruptive force in every industry and every business.
Business Implications
of the
Metaverse Revolution
The Metaverse has the potential to drastically transform customer engagement through its immersive, persistent, 3D environment. This could have implications across a variety of business areas, allowing for experience-driven use cases. Companies can leverage the Metaverse to enhance engagement in several business functions, including event hosting, immersive learning and development, e-sporting, gamification, meta mall, remote field service, marketing, recruitment, onboarding, fashion, and home improvement solutions, as well as digital arts, museums, and metaverse real estate. We can make sure these capabilities be utilized to provide more meaningful experiences.
The Metaverse's multi-faceted nature has the potential to generate algorithm-driven personalization platforms tailored for individual users based on their interests and social networks. This personalization could lead to the emergence of novel subscription-based models and digital marketplaces.
Social media is transforming to serve as open collaboration platforms, allowing brands to harvest more collaboration data to use for improved customer targeting and personalization. This data from the immersive environment can then be used to inform product and service development and brand positioning.
The Emergence of New Monetization Models
The Metaverse presents an array of monetization opportunities that could be incredibly impactful. Companies that are able to take advantage of this in the early stages have the potential to gain significant market share.
Enterprises can create a "One Stop Metaverse Shop" by bundling core platform capability with new services such as cognitive content moderation, connectivity services, AI, and edge computing. This can provide an opportunity for monetization in the metaverse.
The Metaverse, when combined with Web3.0, is expected to give rise to a creator economy without boundaries. Similar to how the Internet facilitated the emergence of new business models, users of the metaverse will be able to recognize and take advantage of opportunities to generate content. Furthermore, user communities will have the power and freedom to administer their content and pricing, leading to a more equitable environment. Content creators will have a variety of avenues to acquire customers and form entrepreneurial opportunities, as well as direct relationships with their followers which will contribute to their growth.
Business models will proliferate across creators, developers, players, marketers and metaverse education to provide new revenue models. Budding examples of new revenue models include non-fungible token (NFT) minting, selling (examples include collectible digital art, tickets to shows, custom 3D models, etc.), and commissions from the resell of NFTs – direct to the developer and direct to creator monetization.
Metaverse Adoption Challenges
The Metaverse holds the potential to create considerable business opportunities, however, there are complexities that must be addressed to ensure success. It is important to have a structured strategy in place to address data privacy and consent, cultural considerations, technological infrastructure, and organization preparedness.
Defining Cyber Trust
Establishing trust is the foundation of the Metaverse. There are multiple dimensions of cyber-trust that need to be taken into consideration, such as setting user expectations, safety, user experience, controlling participation, and ability to manage existence. Additionally, the essential attributes of identity include verified/unverified and known/unknown, and creating people and brand identity with the role of future identity providers in the Metaverse will have a significant impact on identity-related concerns.
Regulation Foundation
Although no laws or regulations currently apply to the Metaverse, existing internet and copyright laws may still be applicable. It is also important to recognize that user-defined access needs must be taken into consideration to ensure platforms are in compliance.. Enterprises should have a defined cyber security strategy that encompasses the following:
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Reputation and Identity
Establishing a process to validate the trustworthiness and legitimacy of entity-user interactions is critical. This process should include decentralized identity management and provide users with control over digital assets. -
Personal Data, Security and Consent
To protect personal data and assets, companies should develop a strategy that includes decentralizing centralized data management, which is currently controlled by big industry giants. This will require creating a new security paradigm. -
Law and Jurisdiction
The current regulatory standards are General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In open identity management, an approach is needed for the user community to ensure these groups are not violating the privacy rules while interacting in the Metaverse. -
Approach to Asset Ownership
In a creator economy, a user can participate as a “value exchanger” or a “value creator.” A validated approach should include verifying that assets created and brought into the Metaverse are from a trusted user and creator of the digital assets. Ownership will be with the users. A unified system or view of user communities will be challenging to address.
Dynamic customer service channels will help identify developing revenue streams and markets. Evolving trends include digital identities and innovative commerce models like cryptocurrencies and tokenization. These new models will increase brand adoption, create more opportunities and become mainstream in the new creator economy.
The Metaverse will Transform Experiences, Business Models and Channels
The Metaverse will open new channels from brand marketing and positioning to product development and new ways to host sales events. There will be new business models for creators, developers, and players that will enable the monetization of digital collectibles and content.
Enabling 3D worlds, location and context-aware interactions and transactions at a global scale will require computing, storage and network capabilities that are an order of magnitude greater than what is in use today. Businesses should adopt an interdisciplinary approach to maximize and scale up for metaverse opportunities. Start by developing a strategy to assess the platform for viability, desirability, and feasibility of all addressable possibilities. To fully capitalize on this platform, companies should apply design thinking that can capture people’s imaginations in unique and compelling ways to deliver meaningful and distinctive experiences.
