Metaverse new business opportunities

The emphasis on building the metaverse also puts the spotlight on the new opportunities it provides for developing innovative business models. Some companies have seen an advantage in starting to research and design new products and services.

New ways of selling

The future is still uncertain, but some signs are beginning to emerge that business development could focus on some of the following examples.

• Virtual properties: this is something that is widespread in the video game industry. Micropayments are the everyday life of gamers, who invest their money in improvements or expansions of their favorite games. The metaverse takes on a new perspective, being able to invest in products like those we can find in real life, from university degrees to land, houses or offices, as well as licenses or physical products. The possibilities are enormous.
• Services: technological progress will contribute to the creation of new services, allowing us to transfer the virtual to the physical. We currently consider the online sale and purchase of insurance (through which we protect our new properties or our virtual economy) to be more and more viable. Another example would be events, such as soccer matches or live concerts. The reinvention of the classic, gives rise to a renewal for those businesses that know how to see the opportunity.
• NFT: another big unknown for the future. Digital tokens are unique, and that is precisely what gives them their value. Any digital item is susceptible to be sold and bought, due to its exclusive nature. It is not yet clear whether they will be consolidated, but if so, the metaverse will be the perfect commercial center for these exchanges.
• Art: it has always found its place and in the new era it was not going to be less. Beyond its cultural value, art is a very profitable business channel and there is no doubt that it will remain so in the metaverse. Closely linked to the concept of NFT, the buying and selling of virtual art is promising.
• Advertising: another aspect of the physical world that has been adapting to the digital world. A new support and showcase is born to generate impacts and, as it grows in users and spaces, the value increases.

Labor market impact

The pandemic generated by COVID-19 had a very direct and rapid impact on the way companies work, select staff or increase their revenues, among other things.

We are finding that teleworking increases productivity in many cases, but also talent retention, employee and customer satisfaction and work-life balance. A world of possibilities has also opened up at the organizational level, with the possibility of recruiting employees without geographical limits or saving costs on facilities, for example.

The metaverse promises to turn all this around, emphasizing all the positive aspects, but with the ‘danger’ of increasing the negative ones. Working behind a screen and miles away is perceived as a risk when it comes to missing the perspective of human interaction but the metaverse promises to break down barriers in this aspect. Can it achieve this, or produce the opposite effect and widen the gap?

It will be the approach and use of the technology that will determine its success in one direction or the other. Only time will tell us whether our predictions will come true.