Businesses to gain as metaverse set to touch $900 bn-mark by 2030: Report

Despite reports that the ‘metaverse-hype’ is slowing down, the metaverse could reach up to $900 billion by 2030 to become an exciting frontier for enterprises looking to engage with customers in innovative and immersive ways, a report published on Thursday by management consulting firm Bain & Company said. According to the report, companies that engage in the metaverse’s early stages of development, over the next five to 10 years, are more likely to become the market winners. 

There are five key competitive battlegrounds chief information officers and chief technology officer (CIO/CTOs) should consider if they wish to get ahead and eventually scale in the metaverse, the report said. Areas like virtual experiences is predicted to grab about 65% of the metaverse projected market size in 2030, followed by content-creation tools (5%), app stores and operating systems (10%), devices (10%), and computing and infrastructure (10%), it said. 

Industries that have since exhibited the use of metaverse-type technologies include but are not limited to: entertainment, manufacturing, healthcare, education and employee training. 

The report also said that as enterprise applications become increasingly immersive and collaborative, it is unlikely that the metaverse will emerge as one singular platform, Chris Johnson, a partner in Bain's Technology practice, said, “Instead, platforms with large user bases today may take steps to become increasingly immersive and engaging, while smaller, metaverse-like environments will try to attract bigger user bases”.  

“These virtual worlds are likely to remain independent silos as private companies seek to recoup their investments by leveraging the value of the underlying data sets,” he added. 

In India too, several companies are tapping into the web3 and metaverse opportunities. A report published in June 2023 by management consulting organisation Arthur D Little, said that the country’s web3 and metaverse market is expected to have an annual growth rate of nearly 40% and potentially become a $200 billion industry by 2035.  

Barnik Chitran Maitra, managing partner, Arthur D. Little India and South Asia, said that content creators and gaming companies are leveraging web3 to directly monetise users. Besides, corporates are building metaverses to engage more meaningfully with their employees and customers. 

Maitra also believes that factors like e-commerce penetration and digital payment adoption in the country present an opportunity for web3 and metaverse technologies in the retail and finance sectors. 

“Being in its early stages, most businesses are figuring out the right use cases. While there is a perceived slowdown in metaverse projects, owing to the current economic crisis, the sentiment in the corporate side will remain strong as there will be many use cases in the next 3-5 years,” Ashootosh Chand, PwC India partner, digital and emerging technologies told TechCircle. 

“Brands are creating new, fully immersive environments and finding a way to engage customers in them. However, the current metaverses lack interoperability, which is a challenge,” he said. 

There are of course certain technical limitations, as the Bain & Company noted. The hardware required to support the metaverse experience is still expensive for most consumers. In addition, using bulky virtual reality devices create some discomfort, which limit the devices’ overall usability. With the coming of lighter and sleeker and less expensive headsets and better browser experience, this challenge can be solved to a large extent. Also, security and privacy are other areas of concern for CIO and CTOs.  

The array of technologies that enable the metaverse — like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), 5G, cloud, AI and blockchain — all raise issues of privacy and data security. That said, this should not discourage companies from experimenting and exploring content and service delivery on these platforms as metaverse offers immense promise for a more connected and immersive world.  

Experts, however, have cautioned that, when developing their brand’s metaverse strategy, CIO/CTOs should keep in mind that the technology is still in its early stages and not yet ready to support a fully immersive and shared space, as Chand noted, it’s essential to take a measured approach and invest in meaningful pilots, set the right metrics, and create a controlled rollout plan to deliver transformative results.