Big News this Week about the Metaverse.

In case you missed it, there have been two big news pieces this week about the Metaverse. Both go well beyond the hype to the reality of what is unfolding in this space.

The first piece of news relates to a report from Boston Consulting Group.

BCG is predicting that the Metaverse will be a $US1.3 trillion-dollar market by 2030.

65% of GenZ consumers have spent money on a virtual item that exists only in the confines of a video game.

The report informs that Meta, Microsoft and Google have all made significant investments into this space. Including Facebook's 10 billion dollar rebrand to Meta and Microsoft's considerable investment into their mixed reality feature mesh for Teams, and the acquisition of Blizzard for $US70 billion dollars. Google has re-organised its AR/VR team and reinvigorated Google glasses. They have also acquired North, a pioneer in human computing interfaces and smart glasses, for $US200 million dollars.

This is all pretty big news but not as big as Microsoft's announcement of an investment of $US450 million dollars into Consensus, increasing the valuation of Consensus to around $US7 billion dollars.

(https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/article/microsofts-web3-plans-now-includes-ethereum-co-founders-startup-consensys/articleshow/90271753.cms)

Consensus is a blockchain development company focused on building applications on the Ethereum blockchain. Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum can build applications on their blockchain that creates an ecosystem of value exchange.

In a previous article I wrote on the Metaverse, I mentioned that I believe what we are starting to see emerge is the new creative ways of value exchange that move us beyond our current monetary system. We know Meta has been working on developing a blockchain and cryptocurrency for some time (aka Libra), and now Microsoft has laid a bet on the Ethereum Blockchain.

While the Metaverse still has a long way to go, and there are some barriers such as 5G rollout, computing power and a raft of security issues, we need to accept that this is not a fad or a hype cycle. Like all exponential technologies, the emergence and impact the Metaverse will make on the industry will be backloaded and deceptive.

I would encourage anyone in a sales or marketing position and any Senior leader to start getting an experience of the Metaverse and understand what this emerging frontier looks like.

I have created a new keynote titled "The Meta What?" separating Meta facts from Meta Hype.

I believe this is a critical space organisations need to get across as it will move fast and create disruption. More importantly, who doesn't want to take advantage of a 1.3 trillion dollar market opportunity?

If you would like to talk to me about getting this talk as a keynote or as a lunch and learn topic, or seminar, please PM me on LinkedIn or send me an email at [email protected]