Catalyst Agents’ View on Future Metaverse Opportunities
In the last quarter of 2021, Facebook changed the company’s name to Meta. The term “Metaverse” has been gaining a lot of exposure ever since. We see companies of all shapes and sizes establishing their presence in the metaverse in different ways including Nike, Gap, Adidas, Walmart and more. A New York-based digital real estate firm Republic Realm acquired real estate in the metaverse on June 18 for $913,808 worth of MANA (Decentraland’s Ethereum-based cryptocurrency).
Yet, the Metaverse is still a new concept where there is no singular or unified definition of it. However, it is emerging and taking shape to enable people to deepen and extend their social interactions not only in one single world but across many digital worlds. In this article, we will summarize our findings and what we expect to see in the Metaverse in the foreseeable future.
Despite the Metaverse being still early in its evolution, the concept is not new. Online, multiplayer Role Playing Games like World of Warcraft, SIMS, and Fortnite have hundreds of millions of players with vast supporting networks. In 2007, Runescape reached 1 million pay-to-play members. In 2010, World of Warcraft reached 12 million subscribers, Fortnite nets Epic Games $3 billion in profit for 2018. The Metaverse has been evolving from two decades of gaming (Web 2.0) and will be built upon gaming infrastructure.
We are already at an inflection point where not a day goes by without us hearing about celebrities getting involved in the Metaverse. Ariana Grande and Travis Scott held virtual concerts in Fortnite, and Paris Hilton created an island inside Roblox called Paris World, where visitors can see a digital replica of her Beverly Hills estate. Snoop Dogg built his mansion in The Sandbox, and he is building “Snoopverse”, which is an expansion of his digital world, and someone paid $450K to be his neighbour.
Even the activities of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 are pretty similar, the biggest difference between Web 2.0 and 3.0 is now you can transfer the ownership of the digital asset to anyone for real currency in terms of cryptocurrencies and tokens. When you buy a plot of virtual real estate, you gain ownership by holding a non-fungible token (NFT) representing the digital space, and the virtual real estate will become your digital asset. Now you can buy virtual plots and develop anything you want on the Metaverse platforms. The average price of a parcel of land doubled from $6K to $12K by December 2021 across the four main metaverse platforms (The Sandbox, Decentraland, Roblox and Somnium Space). Also as we mentioned in the introduction, Developer Every Realm purchased an estate for $913K and turned it into an entire shopping district (Metajuku) which gives rise to the ownership economy within meta-economy.
The supply and demand of the Metaverse are expanding and driving more people into the meta-economy. There are way more new opportunities for people to make money in the Metaverse. If you are hosting a virtual event, you can hire someone to DJ or perform in the event. Virtual concerts now are more profitable than physical ones due to the pandemic and geographic limitations. Travis Scott’s Astronomical tour in Fortnite was viewed by 45 million people and grossed around $20 million including merchandise sales. People who would not have had access due to geography or cost can participate in such virtual experiences.
Despite the Web 3.0 Metaverse not being fully developed at the moment, there are still boundless opportunities in the Metaverse across industries and countries for branding and immersive ad experiences. With the current generation of social media companies, advertising is the model that many platforms use to generate revenue. In-game ad spending in the Metaverse is set to reach $18.41 billion by 2027.
Are you already considering placing advertisements for your business on the Metaverse?
If you are, you are thinking ahead of your competitors. Send us an email at info@catalystagents.com and we will set you up for your journey in the Metaverse.