Highlights
- The metaverses have gained prominence because they are location-independent virtual platforms that are equally or more engaging than the real world.
- If leveraged effectively, they can reduce overheads and optimize profits — the reason businesses are pouring in billions of dollars to create metaverses.
- From healthcare to social media, digital twins will dominate the next decade with this iteration of digital communication.
In this article
Introduction
Unlocking the benefits of metaverses for businesses
In 2021, the metaverses made headlines for attracting billions worth of investments, but that was just the beginning of an epic yet to unfold. Since then, metaverse investments have more than doubled, and this trend is likely to continue in the days to come.
The metaverses have gained prominence because they are location-independent virtual platforms that are equally or more engaging than the real world. If leveraged effectively, they can reduce overheads and optimize profits — the reason businesses are pouring in billions of dollars to create metaverses.
Why is it time to build a metaverse?
Metaverse streamline processes and unlock more revenue sources
Metaverses are hypothetical environments. They lay the cornerstone for an immersive virtual microeconomy where stakeholders with aligned interests can coexist virtually. A metaverse includes customers, employees, brand ambassadors, and investors. So, having them on the same platform enables businesses to streamline processes and unlock more revenue sources.
Over the coming decades, the metaverse has the potential to become a multi-trillion-dollar part of the world economy
What metaverse brings to the table
Metaverses blur the line between real and virtual worlds
Some prominent benefits that metaverse brings to the table are listed below.
Reduce Customer Acquisition Costs
Businesses thrive on sales but acquiring and retaining customers can be expensive even for reasonably established firms. According to Gartner, Tech companies generating under $250 million in annual revenues spend a whopping $27,000 to acquire a customer. In e-commerce, businesses spend a recurring cost between $21 and $533 to acquire a customer.
These overheads can be considerably reduced by using metaverses to build a community and boost engagement through impeccable virtual experiences. As metaverses facilitate powerful reward mechanisms, businesses can generate much more traction by dedicating just a fraction of their sales and marketing budgets towards rewards or discounts.
Control Employee Turnover
Fleeting transactions don’t build relationships, but a series of interactions between an organization and its employees definitely do. Metaverses fuel that interaction through an immersive platform, increasing employee engagement and reducing employee turnover — a cost driver every organization dreads. According to SHRM, the average cost per hire is around $4,700, followed by training costs and idle time.
Eliminate Physical Infrastructure Costs
Metaverses are versatile and can be architected to mimic real-world assets to reduce physical infrastructure costs and increase long-term profitability. Based on the location, this can vary between $100 and $1000 per employee. Metaverses can help wipe that out entirely or reduce it significantly without disrupting business operations.
How To Make the Most of the Power of the Metaverse
Powerful use cases
Here are some use cases that give a snapshot of how powerful metaverses are.
Concerts and Events in the Metaverse
Businesses worldwide spend a fortune on celebrity endorsements and promotional events. Although the contract value differs based on the celebrity’s popularity, the minimum is around $1 million. Besides celebrities, social media influencers also guzzle up billions of dollars every year. In 2021, US influencer marketing costs exceeded $3.6 billion US dollars and were estimated to surpass $4.14 billion this year.
Metaverses facilitate virtual environments that enable brand ambassadors to connect directly with customers and generate more traction. For example, Nike could arrange a virtual gaming event within its metaverse, in which the winner’s digital twin played a virtual tennis game with Serena Williams’ digital twin. Likewise, Pepsi could have Britney’s digital twin sing in a virtual concert for its lucky draw winners, followed by tokenized gifts. With a powerful metaverse, the possibilities for customer engagement are limitless.
Virtual Healthcare
Before COVID, only 45% of practitioners provided telemedicine. However, post-COVID, this number shot up to 95%, and the metaverses could further increase that. According to Forbes, VR is already used by psychiatrists and psychologists in aversion therapy, but metaverses could facilitate much more.
Virtual therapy sessions could be conducted using suitable environments in which the patient and the practitioner’s digital twins are present. Such an arrangement would greatly benefit those living in remote regions with a severe dearth of mental health professionals.
Also, remote consulting and therapy services could be extended to educational institutions and workplaces, thus reducing operational costs. Besides remote consulting, blockchain technology facilitates secure storage of medical records, which can otherwise attract HIPAA fines.
Finance
Neo banks have given traditional banking a tough time, but metaverses could be the answer to their woes. Traditional Banks can now operate virtually and still not miss out on the benefits of in-person communication.
This allows for the creation of new financial products and provides greater transparency into the organization’s affairs as transactions can be recorded on the private blockchain.
From healthcare to social media, digital twins will dominate the next decade with this iteration of digital communication. The value propositions metaverses create for businesses justify the billions of dollars poured into them. Metaverses are undoubtedly the future, and early adopters are bound to have the edge over their competitors.
Metaverses are undoubtedly the future, and early adopters are bound to have the edge over their competitors.
