Global consultancy firm McKinsey & Company released a new report on the Metaverse, stating that in eight years, the field could be valued at $5 trillion – around the same size as Japan’s economy. The report “Value Creation in the Metaverse” drew data from two surveys, including 3,104 consumers across 11 countries and 448 companies across 15 industries.
Metaverse as an Opportunity
According to the report, as the Metaverse continues infiltrating into everyday life, 50% of live events could be held in a virtual space, and 80% of commerce would be “impacted by something consumers do there” by 2030. At that time, every internet user would spend roughly 6 hours a day on the space.
In particular, the gaming sector will be the main driver behind the Metaverse, eclipsing the entertainment industries like music and movies. As of now, the sector has around 3 billion gamers worldwide and is valued at $200 billion.
It’s worth noting that besides gaming – the report predicted – e-commerce and virtual advertising are two major sectors that could take advantage of the Metaverse by 2030, with approximately $2 trillion to $2.6 trillion of all spending in the former one and $144 billion to $206 billion in the latter one.
In a separate blog post, the lead author of the report, Eric Hazan, revealed that the current state of the Metaverse is similar to Web 2.0 in 2004. At that time, online social networks and user-generated content were about to transform how people interacted with one another on the Internet. However, he added, the infrastructural technology was not ready to boost the “utopian visions of consumer control and the democratization of the internet.”
Citing the Metaverse as a rising field similar to what artificial technology was five years ago, Hazan expected capital will continue flowing into the area for building the underlying technologies essential for its infrastructure:
“Billions of dollars are flowing into every corner of metaverse infrastructure to help get it there. This ranges from back-end tech enablers like engines, blockchain, and hardware devices to platforms and virtual worlds.”
Enthusiasm and Skepticism
The report indicated that 95% of the executives believe the Metaverse could positively impact their industry. Meanwhile, roughly two-thirds of consumers are excited about the potential changes brought by the integrated technology between the virtual and the physical worlds.
In addition to revolutionizing social interactions and businesses, Hazan said the integrated network of virtual worlds could “open new avenues to providing public services like education and healthcare, creating employment, and planning community spaces.”
However, 31% of all executives are somewhat concerned about the investments in the up-and-coming technology as it is viewed as a fledging and rapidly evolving space with instability.
Despite the extreme pessimism taking reign on the crypto market lately, over $120 billion has already been injected into Metaverse-related technologies — more than double the total $57 billion investments in such a field by 2021.