The Metaverse: What is It and What Can It Offer Businesses?

During Facebook’s annual meeting, called Facebook Connect, Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that as of October 29, the company is changing its name to Meta. Zuckerberg stressed that Facebook simply could not reflect everything the company is doing at the moment. And such a name simply associates a multi-vector company with one single product. However, along with the name change, Facebook is also developing the Metaverse, which is the concept of creating a common space of digital worlds related to augmented and virtual reality.

Let’s first take a moment to understand the metaverse meaning, and then we will move on to the business implications. 

What is the Metaverse? 

The Metaverse is the concept of a shared virtual space with digital worlds. It can be created as a result of the convergence of augmented reality and sustainable virtual space. The Metaverse includes the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the web. The Facebook metaverse will work on virtual reality headsets as well as mobile devices and game consoles. Mark Zuckerberg made such an announcement in an interview with The Verge. In fact, even now, Portal and Oculus can teleport you to a room with another person, regardless of physical distance, or to new virtual worlds and experiences. 

Tech companies and their leaders are discussing the creation of a “metaverse” as the technology successor to smartphones and the mobile Internet. The Metaverse is a virtual world where people can come together to play, work and communicate. Its concept is closely related to virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, which Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are also currently being developed. While the Metaverse may be a concept from science fiction that many people in the technology industry envision as the successor to today’s Internet, the Metaverse is only a vision at this point. Still, technology companies like Facebook are aiming to make it the setting for many online activities, including work, play, studying, and shopping. 

Now that we received a metaverse definition, we can move on to some of the concepts behind the Metaverse. 

Why Was the Metaverse Created? 

One of the ideas behind the Metaverse was to create experiences where a person has a feeling of presence as if they are in a different place. This would provide you with completely different feelings than those that can be offered by a 2D application or web page. For example, you will be able to create your own virtual office space where instead of just making a phone call, you will be able to sit like a hologram on a couch next to the person you want to talk to. It will really feel as if you are in one place, even if we are in different states or hundreds of miles apart. Facebook already has a professional version of the metaverse underway: Horizon Workrooms, an app that lets Oculus-sporting workers enter virtual offices and hold meetings.

However, creating a virtual workspace is just one of the many practical applications of the Metaverse. Let’s now move on to the industries where the Metaverse can be especially useful in achieving business objectives. 

Metaverse in the Automotive Industry

Since we can define Metaverse as any virtual space, we can use it to create any type of environment automotive companies and dealerships need. For example, users can test drive one of the company’s cars in the downtown area of a particular city or any other driving zone. Such unique driving experiences are great for appealing to millennials and Gen Zers all over the world. 

In addition to this, the Metaverse is great for hosting automotive events. Various users can meet and communicate with one another and experience your company’s mobility offerings in the form of avatars. Operating on a metaverse platform also allows participants to customize their avatars to their preferences and interact with each other in imaginative ways. The sky’s the limit here. For example, you can create an entire adventure park with all kinds of zones, each offering unique experiences, and participants can move around freely from one zone to another. Something like this would be very costly and impractical for many auto companies. Still, anything is possible in the Metaverse, which is why it is so appealing to auto companies all over the world. 

The Metaverse for E-commerce 

Imagine you are having coffee with a friend in the park. She mentions a pair of sneakers she likes and suggests you might like them too. In an instant, a selection of sneakers flashes up into your peripheral vision. As the digital images float by, she details the style, allowing your AI assistant to fine-tune your selection. You see the sneakers she recommended, but you don’t like some of the detailing. Your AI assistant copies them and opens up your customizer.

With a simple swipe, you give your friend access, and together you swap out the laces and tweak the color combination. With another gesture, you buy the sneakers — and purchase an NFT version to dress your holographic avatar. They’ll be delivered from the on-demand factory later in the week. You say goodbye to your friend and tap your smart glasses to leave the park. But in fact, you never left your couch. 

From this example, we can see the benefits of the Metaverse for e-commerce, which is the possibility of combining physical and digital products. This includes the creation of virtual stores and even entire shopping malls where people can walk around with their friends trying on all kinds of virtual goods. The clothes, shoes, make-up, sunglasses, and accessories will all be tried and worn by our avatar so we can see how it feels to inhabit a particular look. This way, shoppers will be able to get a 360-degree view of how these items will look, instead of having to deal with the limitations of traditional e-commerce. 

The Metaverse for Gaming 

Today, popular games like Halo, Minecraft, and many others are two-dimensional. However, imagine taking these games and transforming them into virtual world games for VR and AR. Such immersive environments will allow players to explore them together side by side with VR or AR headsets. 

The two video game heavyweights are showing us ideas of what the Metaverse could be, both in terms of content and audience. For instance, Fortnite — an Epic Games property — hosted a virtual concert with hip-hop artist Travis Scott that over 12 million people attended, and collaboration between Roblox and Gucci created a virtual Gucci Garden space that sold limited edition virtual bags. One bag got flipped onto the scalper market and ultimately sold for the equivalent of $4,115 (in Robux, the game’s currency). The digital bag sold for $800 more than the actual, tangible version.

In addition to this, we see gaming platforms like Roblox allow people to create their own worlds and games within its wider Metaverse. Brands including Nerf, Hot Wheels, and Sony Music partner with Roblox and build their own immersive worlds to connect with customers. Films are doing it too; the musical In the Heights held a virtual block party in a recreation of New York City’s Washington Heights within the Roblox world.

Start Getting in On the Potentials of the Metaverse Today

We talked extensively about what a metaverse is and all of the possibilities it can offer for the business, but to get all of the benefits, you will need the help of metaverse companies who can create the needed solution for you. Skywell Software has extensive experience in developing AR software solutions for some of the largest brands in the world. Regardless of how ambitious your plans may be, we have the skill and experience on staff to make it a reality. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you.