As the world increasingly moves online, businesses are looking for new ways to reach their audiences. One of the most exciting and potentially lucrative opportunities for companies is the metaverse. What are some metaverse business opportunities?
First of all, brands can create their own presence in this virtual world, which can be used to promote their products and services. The metaverse offers businesses a unique opportunity to reach a global audience in an engaging way while minimizing costs. Additionally, this digital realm can be used to build brand awareness and create loyalty among customers
As the metaverse is still in its early stages of rapid growth, it’s important for companies to get a head start now. The early adopters of this technology can easily gain a competitive advantage and establish a strong and lasting presence in this new niche. We’ve divided the metaverse business opportunities into three categories. Let’s discuss the first one.
Improved customer experience
The transition from 2D apps to 3D worlds
The metaverse is sometimes referred to as the next evolution of the internet. After all, it is supposed to be a place where people can interact with each other and digital objects in a three-dimensional space. A place where they can do all the things they did in traditional, 2D apps and websites, except in a more immersive and engaging way.
This opens up new possibilities to improve the user experience and create new, exciting apps. Apps that use augmented & virtual reality, making them more entertaining and functional. So the transition from two-dimensional to VR & AR applications (and metaverses) seems inevitable. Why not start early and get the upper hand in the race toward the metaverse?
Virtual office and conference spaces
Virtual offices in the metaverse can help businesses by providing them with a place to meet and work together online. This can be a great way to save time and money on travel costs, and it can also help businesses stay connected and collaborate more easily.
Digital office spaces open up the possibility of meeting clients in a new way too. It’s always more appealing and personal to actually meet someone, even if it’s just in VR than contact them through a call. At the same time, virtual reality allows you to show working models of your products in an immersive way, no matter how far you are from the client.
Enhanced marketing and branding
Branded spaces
Branded spaces are another example of metaverse business opportunities. They’re places specifically designed to promote a brand or company. This could include buildings and lots in popular metaverses (such as Decentraland), virtual worlds or experiences (like in Roblox) and even entire custom-made VR applications. The goal of a branded space is to create an immersive and interactive experience that will engage users and promote the brand.
There are a few ways that companies can use branded spaces in the metaverse for marketing and branding purposes. One way is to use them to host events or meetups that are related to the company’s products or services. But more on that later.
Another way that organizations can use branded spaces in the metaverse is to create interactive experiences that allow users to learn more about the company and its product. This can be done through games, quizzes, or other engaging content that is designed to educate and entertain users. All this helps in building brand loyalty and exposure.
Virtual events & showrooms
Event marketing is long known for being an effective strategy that builds long-term brand awareness and relationships with clients. It allows your company to meet the target audience in person and grab their full attention for a brief period of time.
Marketing through events, trade shows and showrooms is a great way to:
- increase your brand’s credibility
- educate your audience and prospects
- present your product and create a demand for it
- develop relationships with new leads and existing customers
This applies to all branded events, either in physical spaces or in the metaverse. Virtual events have some advantages over traditional happenings, though. First, they are easily accessible. People don’t have to travel to a specific location, all they need is a PC or VR headset. They provide a way to reach a global audience with minimal cost and effort.
Secondly, virtual spaces are not limited by physical constraints like finite space or the laws of physics. This way, you can build breathtaking places and sceneries impossible to recreate in real life. Functionalities like a teleport option make it more convenient to navigate around them too.
Virtual events are also highly customizable – companies can create an immersive and unique experience that is tailored to their specific marketing goals. They’re much easier to organize as they don’t require several coordinators, janitors and expensive equipment. All you need is an idea and a team of developers. Finally, virtual events in the metaverse are still something unique and interesting, so they leave a lasting impression on potential customers.
New ways of making a profit
Selling branded merchandise is not a new idea, companies all around the world have been using it to make additional profit for years. But with the rise of metaverse & NFTs, it’s becoming clear that there is a new niche for such merch.
Most virtual worlds allow people to customize their avatars and spaces. And that’s something people really want. Why not offer them virtual counterparts of your products? All you need to do is create their 3D models and sell them as NFTs.
You can even include a smart contract for the virtual goods and sell them alongside physical products. For example, customers could buy your sneakers as an NFT in the metaverse for the full price and have a physical pair delivered to their house.
Companies in the metaverse
Now, let’s look at some examples and success stories of companies in the metaverse. We decided to divide them into three categories, companies whose main products are virtual worlds, the ones developing metaverse infrastructure and hardware and companies that use the metaverse as a tool.
Metaverse companies
The first and most obvious metaverse business opportunity companies adopted is making the metaverse their product. Several virtual worlds emerged right before and just after October 2021, when the idea became a hot topic.
Roblox is one of the most known metaverses today. It’s a user-generated online gaming platform that allows users to create their own experiences and play games created by others. Roblox is free to use and popular with children and teenagers. Its owners earn money by selling their virtual currency, Robux. Players can also earn Robux by selling their in-game content and can later exchange it for real money under some conditions.
Most platforms work similarly to Roblox, although they usually go for a more decentralized, user-owned world that relies heavily on the blockchain for cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Examples include Decentraland and Sandbox. AltspaceVR represents another type of metaverse – social platforms. Will such spaces replace Facebook and Instagram in the near future? They just might.
Companies developing the metaverse, hardware & infrastructure
Let’s look at another group of companies in the metaverse. Businesses that invest in and sell software, hardware and auxiliary infrastructure that make metaverses work. We’re talking about anything from 3D graphic design and blockchain marketplaces to AI development and production of VR headsets. This category includes global giants like Meta and Microsoft but also smaller organizations like ourselves.
Companies using the metaverse as a tool
Finally, let’s talk about businesses for which metaverses are a tool that facilitates projects and everyday operations. This is a metaverse business opportunity for any company, even if their product or service is not related to the virtual realm in any way. Besides branded spaces, assets and virtual events, they use the metaverse for things like VR training simulations and virtual offices.
For example, Coca-Cola partnered with Tafi, a company that specializes in NFTs and Web3 solutions. Together, they released the Coca-Cola Friendship Loot Box. It included a few NFTs which were the brand’s first digital collectibles. Created to celebrate International Friendship Day, they were sold for the equivalent of more than 575 thousand USD. What’s more, Coca-Cola organized a rooftop party in Decentraland.
Nike, on the other hand, created Nikeland – their very own virtual world in Roblox. It’s a sports-themed, branded and interactive space. Users can play different mini-games connected to sports making it a fun experience. What’s more, you can buy Nike clothes and accessories with Robux and dress your avatar in your favorite ones.
Enter the metaverse today!
If you’re looking to host a virtual event, develop a piece of metaverse software or create a whole virtual platform, you’ve just found yourself the ideal partner! We specialize precisely in XR and metaverse development services. We’d love to talk to you and help you accomplish your goals however we can: by consulting, 3D graphic design, staff augmentation and full-stack development.
Don’t miss out on this digital revolution! We will help you decide which of the metaverse business opportunities will work best for you and how you can implement it. Contact us today and schedule your free 60-minute consultation with one of our experts!
The author generated this text about metaverse business opportunities in part with GPT-3, OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model. Upon generating draft language, the author reviewed, edited, and revised the language to their own liking and takes ultimate responsibility for the content of this publication.
