What Is The Metaverse?

It’s the next evolution of the internet, a vision built around decentralized technologies and virtual worlds, with an economy projected to be worth $13 trillion by 2023.

The Metaverse.

But, what is the Metaverse?

Today, the Metaverse is a virtual world where users live, work, shop and interact with others – all from the comfort of their own home. Mixing reality with virtual reality, the Metaverse has the potential to become integrated into our everyday lives.

In the words of Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, “In the Metaverse, you’ll be able to do almost anything you can imagine – get together with friends and family, work, learn, play, shop, create – as well as completely new experiences that don’t really fit how we think about computers or phones today.”

In our increasingly virtual world, the Metaverse offers its users a one stop shop for all things digital. Instead of hosting company-wide Zoom meetings, your team can instead meet each other’s avatars in a new virtual space. Instead of having a group Facetime, your friend group can meet up in the crowd at a virtual music festival to watch real-life musicians perform.

Even governments are beginning to extend their reach into the metaverse. For example, Barbados plans to open a diplomatic embassy in the metaverse – specifically, on the online world Decentraland.

Does all of this mean that our real world interactions will begin to fade?

Of course not.

The Metaverse isn’t a replacement for the real world, but an evolution of the virtual world we are already living in, full of new opportunities.

With over 160+ companies currently working to harness the full potential of the Metaverse, there are countless opportunities for brands to get involved in immersive marketing strategies in this emerging virtual world.

This spring the world saw the first ever Metaverse Fashion Week, a virtual fashion show that offered fans from around the world the chance to purchase both real clothing and digital products. Virtual real estate platform Decentraland recruited fashion brands such as Etro, Dundas, Dolce & Gabbana and Estée Lauder to its blockchain-based platform for the four-day event.

In October, Coca-Cola partnered with TMELAND, the world’s first virtual social music platform, to open a new metaverse zone for fans during the Coca-Cola Fan Festival. Fans were able to create their own avatar, go online shopping, play games, and redeem points by purchasing Coca-Cola in the real world.  

The opportunities in the Metaverse are endless, the future exciting and unknown. 

So, what is the Metaverse? It’s more than just the next phase of the internet, it’s what we make it. The future is in our hands.