The Metaverse has been gaining a lot of traction of late. Facebook has just changed its name to Meta to reflect its intent. Technology giants such as China’s Tencent have also shown clear intent to venture into the Metaverse.

With blockchain enabling clear ownership of digital assets and the rise in internet consumption and smartphones adding to its aura, the Metaverse has suddenly catapulted to glory and there’s a huge buzz with respect to owning a piece of the Metaverse.

We have just heard news about the first couple getting married in the Metaverse. We have also heard about leading banks such as JP Morgan creating a presence on the Metaverse. IPL Team ‘Gujarat Titans’ claimed to be the first sports team in India to launch its logo in the Metaverse.

Let’s look at a few of the business models on the Metaverse: –

• The NFT Galleries: You may have heard about artists creating NFTs of their works. NFT is a non-fungible token that is unique and digitized with blockchain-managed ownership. NFTs can be priced and can be bought, sold, and traded in the Metaverse. This is among the first commercial ventures on the Metaverse and many artists from around the world have begun to sell their NFTs in the Metaverse.
• Creating Real Estate: Some landowners have started to use their land parcels or hire construction experts on the Metaverse to create their offices. This has led to a lot of expertise that is required on design and construction of spaces on the Metaverse. It will surely be a booming business of realty in the times to come as the Metaverse gains in popularity.
• Virtual Reality: Metaverse is a place where users want to get an experience which almost simulates reality. There will be immense opportunities in the pipeline for 3D designs, gadgets, and creating such user experiences.
• Gaming: Games will be a huge part of the Metaverse. By converting the in-game real estate and items into NFTs, you can enjoy the game, while also investing in these NFTs and it can provide a great business opportunity just by the traffic that it can generate.
• Shopping: The Metaverse can create exact 3D replicas of clothes, shoes, or accessories. It can also create a replica of you in 3D and then it can give a near-perfect try out experience in the Metaverse which can enable you to go shopping in the Metaverse – right from the comfort of your own house.
• Finally, the traffic generated is serious business – The land parcel that you own, the commercial activity in it, the eyeballs and mindshare it manages to create can all be tracked and analyzed. Analyzing this data can itself be a business as many investors are likely to be interested in this analysis and it could play a role in the pricing of land parcels on the Metaverse.

Are you excited about the Metaverse? Think of the immense opportunity that it will generate with an entire universe being out there virtually.

This will lead to a complete explosion of data. With 5G being in the works and 6G also expected to come a few years down the line in India, we may be seeing a decade wherein the Telecom companies and internet service providers are going to reap rich dividends because of the huge consumption of data that we may not even be able to fathom at this stage.