Metaverse Represents Huge Business Opportunities
Written by Ms. Florence Ip. Edited by Dr. Kyle Wong
A New Ecosystem With Huge Opportunity
Metaverse is the new ecosystem connecting people virtually. When cities are locked down, customers are staying at home and shops are closed for business, work from home becomes a norm. Companies hire people from all places. Because metaverse is a cyberspace for people all over the world, the actual hiring location will not be an issue for business or individuals anymore. Content creators, singers, artists, trainers, software programmers, developers as well as merchants will find enormous opportunities in this new global market. Ultimately, many jobs will be generated by the metaverse. Income earned will also be spent in the new ecosystem to buy NFTs, physical goods and online services. The purchased goods will be delivered to the buyer’s home in real life, or they may stay in the metaverse.
Let’s imagine a virtual world. If an insurance company has a virtual store and you can find your agent to explain a policy to you face-to-face inside the shop. If a camera shop has a representative avatar to answer your technical questions and guide you through the camera setting, wouldn’t that be convenient ? If a library allows readers to borrow digital books or if students can travel to an ancient city in their history lesson, wouldn’t that be wonderful ?
Nowadays, GameFi and play-to-earn models are already generating income for players globally. Citizens of Decentraland can go to the virtual shop of Domino’s Pizza to order a meal, and pizza will be delivered to their homes in real life. Some luxury brands are selling both non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and physical products on their online shops. Once the buyer buys the NFT, the customer will be able to wear the physical fashion and his/her avatar will also be able to wear the same design in digital version. These fashion companies allow customers to buy NFTs with fiat money and credit cards. That removes the entry barrier of requiring cryptocurrency. People will be more likely attracted to the metaverse and become loyal residents in the future.
Metaverse will be a cyberspace for playing, social gathering, living and working. Players will participate in virtual business meetings, attend online courses in virtual classrooms, play blockchain-based games and manage crypto portfolios all inside the metaverse.
Merchants are exploring new sources of revenue by expanding their businesses in this new market. Many blockchain developers as well as large tech companies, including Microsoft, Meta and Google, are targeting the creation of a metaverse.
Virtual office is real
“I predict most virtual meetings will move from 2D camera image grids — which I call the “Hollywood Squares model,” although I know that probably dates me — to the metaverse, a 3D space with digital avatars,” wrote Bill Gates.
Microsoft is focusing on practical applications and is launching enterprise applications for Metaverse. A brand-new product for chat and conferencing programs with digital avatars features is under testing and will be released to market in the first half of 2022. Users come to the virtual office to work, meet and chat. Office files, such as PowerPoint decks, Words and Excel spreadsheets, can be shared among colleagues for editing and saved in a virtual office.
This enterprise application technology has been applied to a Covid-19 ward in a U.K hospital, a manufacturing plant of Toyota and even to the international space station. Some corporations have already used this technology to run new employee orientations, business events and manufacturing process simulation during the pandemic period.
Virtual Factory Improves Production
A beer company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, has created a replica of its brewing operations and supply chain in 3D immersive technology and synchronized with the actual facilities with real time data. The AI simulation system allows the brewer to adjust its operation conditions to find the optimal performance, while the real production machines are running. When the virtual factory is connected to their retail shops, the company can collect real time customer information from shops and feed data into a virtual factory for order adjustment without disrupting the real production line. When the plan is finalized, the real machines can then be modified. So, operational risk can be minimized significantly.
Virtual Campus Makes Study More Interesting
VictoryXR is partnering with Meta to build 10 digitised university campuses across the U.S. by 2022. Learning institutions, including Stanford University, University of Nicosia and Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, are building virtual campuses in Metaverse to offer immersive learning experiences. Oxford University is also working on virtual reality (VR) content of K-12 and higher education for students in secondary schools. In fact, online courses are widely adopted nowadays. International students can enrol to online courses offered by universities in any country. Sooner or later, remote students can walk into a virtual campus in the metaverse to meet friends, classmates, teachers, tutors and professors.
Steve Grubbs, the CEO of VictoryXR, stated “We are adding precious historical sites like King Chapel and the Ray Charles Performing Art Center. This is a transformational experience for students, faculty, staff and administration.”.
Can you imagine that students can meet Michaelangelo in their art lesson or discuss evolution with Darwin? With the pioneer technology, immersive learning experiences will turn a boring classroom into a colourful and fascinating place for students to enjoy learning. Studying will become very interesting and fun.
On students’ graduation day, they will receive digital academic credentials which will be hashed in blockchain. Employers can go online to verify their educational record. Employers can also hash employment letters in chains as employment records for their employees. Academic record as well as hiring history can be verified easily.
Newsight, which is a vision sensing technology company in Israel, produces Lidar that can scan and record large scenery, transform into digital contents and display the image onto computer devices. Educational organisations and companies can utilize this technology to capture the facilities and replicate their campus and factory as a 3D background in metaverse.
You Can Revisit Your Dreams
Dreams come from your subconscious and they can be highly informative. People like to understand the meaning of their dreams. Orange, which is a sleeping therapy company in Hong Kong, will meet their clients in metaverse, listen to the story of their dreams, re-build their dreams and analyze their information from their subconscious mind with an artificial intelligence (AI) analytical system. As a result, clients can visualize and understand their dreams. Mental health assessment reports as well as mental treatment will be provided accordingly.
Metaverse Platforms Will Be Interconnected
In the future, plenty of different metaverse platforms will coexist, similar to the online games’ current situation. There will not be a single winner. Many metaverse platforms will flourish. Every platform will cover a niche market. Each platform will offer special features and diversity. Some will mirror the real world, like Microsoft’s. Some will represent fantasy worlds, such as space and wonderland. Metaverse platforms will be interconnected.
When the company operates its virtual shops in several different metaverse platforms, the shop should provide channels to those platforms. Therefore, when an avatar walks into an online shop, it can navigate to the official 3D shop to buy NFT products. The avatar can carry his/her digital goods and walk out to another metaverse platform. So eventually, many online shops will set up 3D shops which will link to at least one metaverse platform. All metaverses will synchronize together and interconnect into one single universal platform.
Every Business Should Have A Presence In Metaverse
ACH, which is the business consultancy firm with a group of scholars, professionals and experts, is establishing its own metaverse ‘GreatMeta’. ACH will lead the traditional businesses and organisations into the metaverse to meet new customers. ACH will provide feasible advice and marketing strategy to help clients to structure their new businesses and guide them in operating in Metaverse. GreatMeta will be the bridge between the real world and the Metaverse. GreatMeta will help traditional companies to find new income sources.
Please contact ACH to find out more:
Or visit ACH website to get more information:
