Metaverse Opportunities for Technology Product Owners

We continuously see the involvement of tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Apple, etc., in the metaverse. Slowly and steadily, the metaverse is working towards changing how people and organizations interact with each other and the world. This progress is forcing tech service providers worldwide to develop innovative strategies to keep up with the times.

In this article, we briefly look at the 3 phases in which technology product owners can exploit metaverse opportunities.

• Evolution Spectrum of a Metaverse
• Strategic Metaverse Objectives for Tech Product Leaders
• Evolution of Products and Services in Each Metaverse Phase
• Tech Characteristics of Metaverse Evolution
• Market Opportunity in Metaverse Evolution
• Metaverse-Inspired Opportunities for Tech Service Providers
• What do Tech Service Providers Need to Succeed in the Metaverse?

Evolution Spectrum of a Metaverse

At present, the metaverse seems to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It is simultaneously being advertised as the next-gen innovation and criticized as over-promised. The metaverse has at least 10 years before it hits maturity. The evolution of the metaverse in these 10 years will occur across three, probably overlapping, phases—emerging, advanced, and mature.

The metaverse opportunities will pave the way for a completely new landscape of the internet, acting as a collective, shared space born from the union of physical and digital experiences. Similar to how there is only one internet, we expect that there will be only one metaverse. Like Gartner says, “just as no single organization owns or controls the internet, the same will be true for the metaverse as well”.

Phase 1: Emerging Metaverse

The emerging metaverse is the stage we are currently in, with commercially available products and services like online games, social networks, e-commerce, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs. Depending on their use cases, these technologies may satisfy one or more characteristics of the metaverse (e.g., decentralized, interoperable, etc.) but the emerging metaverse is incomplete.

For instance, there is no interoperability between distinct products and services that are presently being marketed as the metaverse. The reason for this is not a lack of use cases but the absence of a standard for interoperation. Essentially, all existing technologies and apps being advertised as ‘metaverse’ today are in actuality pre-metaverse.

Phase 2: Advanced Metaverse

The solutions in the advanced metaverse will be characterized by the blend of different technologies seen in the emerging phases. This convergence will inspire new technologies essential to support mature metaverse opportunities.

The advanced metaverse phase will prominently focus on spatial computing technologies such as defining the location and orientation of a digital object in a physical space e.g., a digital sign facing the correct way on a street.

Phase 3: Mature Metaverse

The mature metaverse will be the stage of the metaverse where most applications have features that facilitate collaborative and multi-sourced experiences. The arrival of the mature metaverse opportunities will be announced by interoperable content across digital experiences.

To consider an example, assume a dynamically updated digital note affixed to a physical object such as a traffic light that the technicians could access and update. The citizens will be able to excess an extended layer of this content to report details like an outage. Since the content is digitally affixed, all citizens will be able to see when the outage was reported instead of replicating efforts.

The feature of decentralization will enable real-time localized content updates on this model. City workers will be able to illustrate the outage scenario in a digital experience, simulating traffic and service disruptions that may be caused by the outage and the repair process. Geographically distributed stakeholders can use this scenario to collaborate in real-time, ensuring a synchronous workflow.

In order to develop an effective strategy, tech product owners will need to calculate the growth and curve of the emerging trends and technologies that facilitate metaverse experiences at each stage.

Strategic Metaverse Objectives for Tech Product Leaders

Since there will only be one metaverse, with no single company owning, controlling, or developing everything, the aim for the tech product leaders will be to understand the evolutionary path of the metaverse and take some key steps such as:

Related Article: How to build a metaverse virtual world?

• Building metaverse products & solutions: Rather than a single ‘killer app’, it would be more beneficial for tech service providers to generate a pipeline of innovation based on different combinations of emerging technologies. A popular example would be spatial computing.
• Identify metaverse-inspired opportunities: Evaluating the current high-value use cases like gaming, navigation apps, real estate, entertainment, wayfinding, VR, AR, and XR experiences, etc. with respect to their own product and service, tech product leaders can develop solutions that will gain momentum in the metaverse.
• Extend collaboration: To support metaverse experiences, it is important for tech product leaders to proactively create and engage with an ecosystem of standard content and service delivery partners. This will help them efficiently address the developing aspects of the metaverse. For instance, Decentraland made it possible for JP Morgan to launch a virtual branch on the metaverse. The bank’s Onyx lounge is a 2-floor virtual property that gives businesses and institutions an opportunity to enter the metaverse and allows users to transact, socialize, and experience the evolving virtual world.
• Prepare for business model transformation: Any technological change will require established businesses to adapt to new models. A thorough analysis of current trends such as super apps, API monetization, and composable pricing will help tech product providers prepare for and transition into new business models smoothly.

Evolution of Products and Services in Each Metaverse Phase

Each evolutionary stage of the metaverse opportunities for tech providers to develop solutions that provide content, infrastructure, and interaction possibilities across three main domains.

The first one is the domain of technologies required to build the metaverse. The second includes products and services that are; Necessary for delivering attributes of a fully-functional metaverse and enabling new markets and business models. Finally, there is the domain of market characteristics which will be completely overturned in a fully P2P environment.

Tech Characteristics of Metaverse Evolution

Each phase of the metaverse opportunities evolves and thrives on distinct tech characteristics.

The emerging metaverse will see the development (and use) of smart devices and siloed apps and experiences in the interaction layer. These will be used to build social networks, games, e-commerce, sensor technologies, IoT, etc., in the content layer offering a seamless Web3 multiplayer platform in the infrastructure layer.

For the advanced metaverse, the interaction layer can consist of multimodal interfaces and immersive experiences such as AR, VR, and XR. This will lead to the development of digital experience platforms on the content layer in addition to persistent and geoposed data, digital tokens and currencies, and environmental mapping. The infrastructure layer of the advanced metaverse may see edge cloud services, digital spatial protocols, and the blockchain.

Related Article: The Inevitable Role of Blockchain in the Metaverse

In the case of the mature metaverse, the interaction layer will contain device independence in the form of advanced virtual assistants and smart spaces. The content layer will be endowed with graph technologies and spatial data integration. For the infrastructure layer, P2P services, spatial registries, and interoperability frameworks will be the highlight.

Market Opportunity in Metaverse Evolution

For tech service providers, the evolution of the metaverse presents a plethora of opportunities in the interaction, content, and infrastructure layer.

Phase 1: Emerging

The emerging phase of the metaverse is expected to last till 2024. This will be a phase with limited direct opportunities. Interestingly, the majority of these opportunities will be driven by technologies such as environmental mapping for autonomous navigation, whose obvious purpose is not to create the metaverse. Yet, these will play a defining role in the development of the metaverse.

Most of the future use cases of this phase will be inspired by the current use like AR for frontline work and VR for high-consequence scenarios. Tech leaders may have to create a sustainable and profitable business on these use cases.

Phase 2: Advanced

Predicted to be 3-year long starting from 2024, the advanced metaverse phase will present more direct opportunities for tech providers. Most of these opportunities will focus on the content layer, i.e., data, information, and foundation of the metaverse itself.

The most obvious development we can see happening in this phase includes tools and technologies that link the physical and digital worlds and help scrutinize the relationships between them.

The second phase of the metaverse evolution may also be the grounds for the development of technology that populates the information layer of the metaverse. This refers to innovations that capture, create, and integrate digital content to overlay onto the physical world e.g., tech that senses and maps people, places, things, and/or processes.

Phase 2 will primarily serve as the ground where the building blocks to the metaverse gradually mature.

Towards the tail end of this stage, we may witness the development of early infrastructure opportunities specific to the metaverse. This includes interoperability frameworks, protocols, and registries for the spatial web.

Phase 3: Mature

This will be a stage where both organizations and individual users will have a clear vision and potential for the metaverse. The innovations will build on the applications and use cases discovered in phase 2.

From 2028 onwards, we will have a better, clearer understanding of the aspects and functionalities of the systems needed to make a mature metaverse possible. This will open up significant opportunities in the infrastructure layer with vendors competing to build the foundation of a transformational and potentially omnipresent system.

Metaverse-Inspired Opportunities for Tech Service Providers

How companies define the metaverse varies greatly, which is why it is exciting to see the many different areas that tech service providers can explore while entering the metaverse.

• Immersive Entertainment: Perhaps among the most popular metaverse experiences, immersive entertainment is earning a lot of interest, particularly from the younger consumers—the strata that are most likely to drive the growth of the metaverse. A number of popular artists have explored and ventured into metaverse entertainment.
  
  Ariana Grande hosted a virtual concert series with the Fortnite gaming universe in 2021. Manticore Games helped Deadmau5 launch Oberhasli, an ongoing virtual experience containing interactive surprises for fans and a completely immersive concert experience. Other artists who are exploring the potential of the metaverse include Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, and Steve Aoki. These events only hint at the vast, immersive entertainment experiences that the metaverse can provide.

• Better Education & Training: Cross-industry organizations can use the metaverse to provide better training to their workers. The metaverse will allow instructors and students all over the world to meet and work in real-life scenarios. For instance, Microsoft is already working on this. Its metaverse Mesh allows teams and people in different physical locations to join virtual meetings, collaborate on shared documents, send chats, etc.

• Business Operations: Metaverse can be used to support a collaborative environment where operations associates can use the technology to coordinate with team members in a more complete and wholesome way. Tech companies such as Meta are already working on developing virtual meeting rooms that allow 3D avatars of people to meet with their teammates. A fully developed metaverse will have the technology to transport colleagues to each other’s work locations and execute tasks virtually.
  
  Microsoft’s metaverse Mesh is a good example of this. Mesh will allow teams and people in different physical locations to join virtual meetings and collaborate on shared documents. With team features like Together and Presenter Mode, Mesh aims to make remote and hybrid meetings more collaborative and immersive.

• Digital Locations: Virtual real estate is another aspect of the metaverse that is grabbing eyeballs. Retailers can create a digital presence in the metaverse for the customers. For instance, a restaurant can use the metaverse to allow customers to order real-world pickup or delivery. For instance, Atari, one of the world’s most iconic entertainment producers and consumer brands, is working with The Sandbox to create 3-D twins of some of their most famous properties in the metaverse.

• Advertising & Marketing: Brands can use the metaverse to advertise or market their latest innovations through engaging life-like experiences. For instance, Hyundai Motor Company launched the Hyundai Mobility Adventure on Roblox which allows the avatars of gamers to experience current and future mobility products by the company.
  
  Metaverse can completely transform the way companies interact with their customers. AR, VR, and XR technologies can be used to create immersive shopping experiences. For instance, automakers can offer virtual test drives to customers or a travel company can bring historical events to life for tourists.

What do Tech Service Providers Need to Succeed in the Metaverse?

• Innovative Client Engagement: Given the inherent ability of gaming companies to build user-engaging life-like content, they enjoy an edge over other techs in the metaverse. It is precise because of this reason that gaming companies like Nvidia will be thriving in the emerging and advanced phases of the metaverse. Tech service providers who can build products for this set of clients will therefore benefit heavily from the metaverse.
  
  However, other industries are not far behind. The metaverse has the potential to expand the client base that tech service providers can serve. Metaverse is expected to see exponential growth in all sectors, including retail, manufacturing, travel, banking, financial services, insurance, etc. Tech service providers should be willing to build solutions that cater to this clientele.

• Exceptional Platform Competence: In the metaverse, service providers will be expected to work closely with edge, cloud, 5G, carriers, etc. Those who can envision, design, and operate exceptional infrastructure for multiple technologies will succeed in the metaverse.

• Model for Monetization: Tech service providers will have to display the ability to envision and build never-like-before commercial models to allow their clientele to monetize the metaverse. The ability to combine traditional methods (consulting and industry knowledge) with breakthrough ideas for potential revenue streams in the metaverse will be preferred. The monetization model of Roblox is a good example to consider here. Roblox earns money through the sale of Roblox, its in-game currency, licensing agreements, advertising deals, and royalties.
  
  Roblox is available as a one-time purchase or through a monthly subscription. Users purchase this in-game currency to carry out different tasks within the platform. Next, Roblox partners up with brands such as Marvel and Lego that, in return, promote their products and services on the platform. The advertiser compensates Roblox for brand exposure. Partners like Walmart and Toys’R’Us pay the platform a licensing fee in lieu of being able to sell Roblox-branded items.

• Capabilities to work with SMEs: Metaverse opportunities for tech service providers include innumerable small businesses from all around the world. Therefore, it will be critical for service providers to build feasible GTM strategies and technical capabilities.

• Ability to Envision Futuristic Products and User Experiences: The metaverse will thrive on futuristic, next-gen user experiences. At the start of Web3, we had AI and blockchain. Soon we saw NFTs, and now we’re witnessing the development of the metaverse. It is only a matter of time before some other innovation joins the list. Tech service providers who can envision and develop such experiences will be preferred over those who focus solely on core technology.

Closing Thoughts

Given the way it is expected to evolve, we can safely assume that the metaverse will give tech service providers countless opportunities to grow. The metaverse will ultimately change the way people exist and interact with each other. To truly establish a firm standing in the metaverse, tech service providers will have to constantly engage in proactively strategizing their position and plan of action for each developmental phase.