The SCAI Group takes stock of the particular entity that goes by the name of “Metaverse” with an interesting in-depth analysis starting from data and information taken from studies by McKinsey, Wunderman Thompson and Forrester Research, on global trends and forecasts and on some areas of application. We took a look at the scenarios that are emerging for the #ICT sector and beyond. Here is a summary…
According to Matthew Ball, venture capitalist and essayist, the Metaverse is not a virtual world or a space, but a kind of next phase of the mobile Internet – a framework for a highly connected life. “The Metaverse,” he writes, “will slowly emerge over time as different products, services and capabilities integrate and merge together.”
In short, what is this Metaverse and how can we relate to it? It seems destined to occupy a large part of our future. In its interesting analysis, the SCAI Group faces the Metaverse from various angles, including the fateful and inevitable test of the market, whose estimates range from 5 to 13 trillion dollars by 2030, with a total of users equal to about five billion.
Even without going too far in forecasts, business models (Direct-to-Avatar) are already emerging, new markets and new opportunities that will have a clear impact on the growth of an economy based entirely on digital, but strongly anchored to physical reality. When we talk about the Metaverse, therefore, it is not a “renunciation” of the physical world, but a new “three-dimensional layer” of the Internet browsing experience, a layer that is added to the evolutionary path of the network: from the 1D Internet to the 2D social world to then reach a third dimension that will generate value for companies only if it is possible to define interoperability between platforms, standard asset transfer protocols and digital identities.
But where are we currently? In what, in the in-depth analysis of the SCAI editorial team (which is inspired by reports by McKinsey, Wunderman Thompson and Forrester Research), is defined as the “interlocutory phase”. If we look specifically at Italy, based on the Anitec-Assinform Report released in June, it emerges that we are still in an embryonic phase that does not allow us to define a real market: at most, we can foresee that even on our territory the growing diffusion of technologies such as Augmented Reality, Blockchain and cryptocurrencies will make it possible to exploit the economic potential of the Metaverse. At this stage many questions remain open: how will the balance between the physical world and a virtual world be achieved that can be built as a safe environment, possibly according to the principles of responsibility and fairness? How will privacy and security frameworks realign?
Are we therefore facing the birth of a digital economy that will intertwine with the traditional one without replacing it? A sort of Web 3.0, with virtual worlds like Decentraland, The Sandbox, Somnium Space or Cryptovoxels? What is certain is that companies are developing more and more departments dedicated to virtual reality, and consumers, for their part, are adapting their habits, developed in the physical world, to the virtual one, giving life to new direct business models, to avatar (D2A). According to a report by Wunderman Thompson from September 2021, 93% of global consumers agree that technology is our future, and 76% say their daily lives and businesses depend on technology.
In short, if the topic interests you, all you have to do is dive into the in-depth study by the SCAI Group, which contains many ideas and useful information. Is the Metaverse already around the corner?
comunicazione@grupposcai.it
www.grupposcai.it
www.linkedin.com/company/scai/life
