The Metaverse 5 years from now! What first movers’ advantage can you do for your Business?

Most booming businesses are first come, first serve. The crypto world waits for no one as it comes up with a new cryptocurrency, a new blockchain, and a hundred new NFT projects every day.

One of the quintessential questions most businesses have for Web3 is how they can benefit from the Metaverse. We’ve covered how fashion brands can learn from the Metaverse
Today at What are NFTs, we’ll present you with the best things you could do for your business today to reap the benefits from the Metaverse in the future:

What is the Metaverse?

The Metaverse is an alternative virtual reality in Web3 where users can experience social interactions with other Metaverse residents, interact with brands within the confines of the digital universe and purchase NFTs and virtual plots of land. There’s not one Metaverse but many of them, with the most famous Metaverses being Decentraland and The Sandbox. Metaverses tend to be decentralized and offer their residents the opportunity of purchasing tokens, which grant them benefits such as voting rights and the power to make decisions.

Think of it as the digital realities usually presented in science fiction books, TV shows, and films, but in their earlier stages. Most of the big Metaverses are videogame universes, but companies such as IBM, Oculus, and Meta are actively working on ways to bring
Metaverses are developed by teams not too different from a video game’s developing team. Many celebrities, such as Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, and Gary Vaynerchuk have joined a Metaverse and purchased properties in it.

To understand how to use the Metaverse to your advantage, you need to understand the possibilities opened by its technology. The Metaverse works as an interlinked network of digital universes. One of the goals for the Metaverse is to open the doors from one virtual world to another within its digital reality, and connect from the physical world using reality augmenting goggles.

The Metaverse allows you to create digital avatars similar to the gaming profiles used in games like Roblox or Minecraft. Meta has expressed plans to create virtual workspaces for businesses and their employees to collaborate from the comfort of their homes and bring experiences for all ages.

A business could hold meetings in a virtual room where they can discuss project advances and even host company parties.

Which companies are in the Metaverse?

Meta

The first major company to act based on the future of the Metaverse was Facebook, which rebranded itself as Meta, a Metaverse company, in October 2021. Many experts and Web3 enthusiasts agreed that the Metaverse boom is still a couple of years away, as there’s not enough universal awareness of Web3 or the possibilities it opens for customers in the present day.
Big companies are collaborating with gaming metaverses to create virtual worlds where players can compete and participate in gaming experiences.

Public reception has been mixed, partly due to Meta’s previous branding as Facebook and issues it had with data management. On the other hand, many fans of the concept of the Metaverse have expressed excitement to see what Meta comes up with in the long-term. Meta is investing billions to create an engaging Metaverse, including affordable VR and AR tech.

Roblox

Roblox has shown leadership in the creation of a Metaverse space, and its popularity has been growing ever since 2020. With over 50 million daily users and a growing demographic of children that keep the game updated thanks to its reliance on creator community. Roblox’s modus operandi has been the inspiration for other Metaverse-based games, such as The Sandbox and Decentraland.

One could learn from Roblox’s creation of a decentralized user-led economy where creators have the opportunity of coming up with their own experiences for other players to participate.

Microsoft & Kawasaki

Microsoft has partnered with Kawasaki to create an industrial metaverse. Their goal would be to provide their workers with HoloLens headsets to improve productivity and manage supply chains. Their industrial metaverse would be a digital twin of the workspace, which can improve production, repairs and starting worldwide manufacturing lines.

The HoloLens would open up possibilities for people to chat with workers on site and walk them through the repair steps using AR technology. Other companies that have expressed interest in Microsoft’s industrial Metaverse are Boeing and Heinz, who would use them for their ketchup factories.

It’s interesting to note how it’s been Microsoft’s customers that have been asking for industrial Metaverse tech, with their growing business saying a lot of where things stand with the digital reality.

There’s also been talk about Metaverse products that work on 2D screens, including new features that Microsoft added to its Teams chat app, providing users the option to appear as digital avatars.

Nike

Nikeland is a Roblox game where players can create digital friendships, custom games and purchase Nike branded clothing.

Nikeland isn’t focused on simply raising brand awareness, it’s an opportunity for Nike to expose their clothing to a wide audience. It’s a sandbox ecosystem where players can create their own designs and obstacle courses inside of their digital space.

Players who joined Nikeland where greeted by their playground, called the player’s Yard. They could create their games in the Yard, which can be experienced by their friends. There are buildings for players to explore, with the most notable one being an orange building known as the Showroom.

The Showroom acted as a gallery where players could purchase Nike-branded gear.
What could businesses learn from Nikeland?

Collaborating with an existing Metaverse will become the main way to raise awareness about your brand. Creating an experience is what gets people to think about a company, especially if the experience is designed with the end user in mind.

Obtain virtual plots of land

Many crypto investors and even big companies have invested in purchasing virtual plots within one of the major Metaverses, such as Decentraland or The Sandbox. They buy these using their respective Metaverse’s NFT marketplace, and consider virtual plots some of the best NFTs to buy.
That’s because virtual plots of land will appreciate with time. They might lose some of their value in the short term due to fluctuations in the price of crypto, but as the Metaverse is populated, many people will want to purchase virtual plots for themselves.

Many crypto and NFT enthusiasts consider virtual land as a good investment, even labeling it the next big investment vehicle. Metaverse land owners can rent it to other Metaverse residents to earn a profit, especially if their plot of land is located in a populated venue. They can be used for companies for renting.

Similar to crypto and NFTs, virtual lands are a volatile investment and can still be considered in their early days. As the tech continues to develop, so will the Metaverse and its applications. There’s no way of knowing if it’ll increase or not, and no matter how enthusiastic, it’s never a good idea to invest more than you can afford to lose.

Virtual plots of land are similar to purchasing real estate but within the Metaverse. Metaverse NFT marketplaces selling land can be accessed with a desktop computer, making it a simple ordeal to find virtual real estate before you click the purchase button.

Investing in virtual land also means investing in at least enough cryptocurrency to fulfill the transaction. If you’re purchasing in Decentraland, you’ll need to purchase MANA, and if buying in The Sandbox, you’ll need to purchase SAND. It’s possible to purchase these cryptocurrencies in advance before making any decision too, which would be a possible advantage if you start early in the virtual real estate investment business.

Of course, ‘starting early’ would mean starting immediately, as the average 1×1 plot on either Metaverse costs between $11,000 to $25,000. Now’s the best time to purchase virtual lands for the Metaverse.
The Metaverse five years from now.
The concept of the metaverse seems like an abstract, sci-fi movie idea for many, but the truth is that metaverses are growing in popularity as the forefront ecosystem for developing Web3 games and communities. Decentraland, The Sandbox, Fortnite, Roblox and many others are collaborating with savvy businesses to create experiences for their digital residents.

If you want dibs on the best each Metaverse has to offer, whether it’s plots of land to rent or resell, or a higher popularity with those living in them, then it’s time to start planning your strategy for the digital reality.

Web3 is developing at blazing speed, so no one can determine for sure what to expect from the Metaverse in five years. The closest idea we have is Meta and Microsoft’s ideas of the future of Metaverses, better shown in their videos here.

One thing is for certain: the early bird gets the worm. Learn more about the Metaverse and how it affects NFTs in our other articles at What are NFTs.